Fabula Nova Crystallis: A Final Fantasy XIII Novel
by Frosty Princess Katie
Summary: An in depth novelization of the game Final Fantasy XIII. Deeper character developments and a deeper explanation of the storyline. Told from all the characters perspectives throughout the storyline
1. Prologue

Prologue

The Vestige, the ruins of a lost world and a constant reminder of the scars of the past, stood on the outskirts of the seaside city of Bodhum. Its massive size towered high above the city's tallest buildings casting a shadow over the city at just past noon. To the citizens of Cocoon, the floating civilization above a land of hardship and peril, the Vestige was a ruin that was brought up to their prosperous land to serve as a reminder to the people of the "Hell on Earth" that lay below them.

The citizens of Cocoon, wanted nothing to do with Pulse. Pulse was a land of fire and brimstone. A land of constant war and strife that bred violent monsters and uncivilized tribes. Cocoon was a floating paradise tucked away in a shell of crystal safe above the land of hell, and it protected its people and provided a prosperous land for humans to live in.

Cocoon's extreme prosperity was brought about by the workings of a handful of powerful fal'Cie, supernatural beings that hold the responsibility to watch over and maintain the land of Cocoon and to keep it protected from a Pulse invasion from fal'Cie that lived upon that hellish world. They indirectly controlled the people of Cocoon by influencing sanctum decisions, though most people remained ignorant to the fact that the fal'Cie were controlling them and chose to believe that the sanctum served as a good government to fall under rule by. And so the fal'Cie that protected and provided for Cocoon became known to the people as Sanctum fal'Cie. The fal'Cie that lived upon Pulse acquired the fitting name of a Pulse fal'Cie, whose goal, was to destroy Cocoon and all of its fal'Cie and bring ruin to the people.

It was this belief that was introduced to the people by the sanctum, and forced the citizens to live in constant fear of the world below and begin to believe that one day there would be an invasion if the people didn't rid their world of anything that was a threat to the sanctum and the world of Cocoon.

The Vestige that loomed over Bodhum was brought to Cocoon by a sanctum fal'Cie and it convinced the sanctum that it was harmless but would serve as a reminder of the threat of Pulse to the people…and it did. The people lived in fear of the Vestige and few rarely ventured near it believing that if they did they would be contaminated by the power of Pulse. The history of the war between Pulse and Cocoon was taught to every citizen living within the floating city at a young age and the tale was constantly reinforced. It was always the same…Pulse fal'Cie saw sanctum fal'Cie as traitors and wanted to destroy them and their beloved world, so the Pulse fal'Cie brand humans with a mark that makes them as their servants…the l'Cie. The l'Cie are given a focus, a task in which they must perform which almost always deals with the destruction and demise of Cocoon. The people of Cocoon were taught that if anyone was branded by a Pulse fal'Cie, they were enemies of Cocoon that were contaminating the land and must be executed.

It was for that reason that the people stayed away from the Vestige even though it remained firmly sealed shut and posed no threat. At the same time the fear that the Vestige fed, allowed the sanctum, and ultimately the sanctum fal'Cie to control the citizens of Cocoon with ease.

What the people and the sanctum didn't know, however was that the Vestige did pose a threat to their paradise. Sleeping within the Vestige for hundreds of years a Pulse fal'Cie began to stir. As it woke the doors to the Vestige began to creak open and deep within the many twisting and folding corridors of the ruins near the chamber where the Pulse fal'Cie was resting, two crystalline statues began to shimmer and crack away to reveal human skin. Piece by piece the crystal cracked away to reveal two human bodies. When the crystal disintegrated into fine shimmering sand that floated into the air two unconscious women were left on the floor of a corridor in the ruins, both had the brand of a l'Cie.

While the two women slumbered, the fal'Cie in the Vestige that woke up from its long rest began to call out for a new human target to brand as a l'Cie and bring about the destruction of Cocoon. It would find its target two days later in the curiosity of a young woman named Serah Farron who lived in the city of Bodhum. It would brand her as a l'Cie and give her a focus to destroy Cocoon. It was this act upon this innocent girl that would throw Cocoon into such a panic that the entire city of Bodhum was put in lockdown, its people waiting for their fate, for now they were contaminated with the essence of Pulse and considered just as much a threat to Cocoon as the girl Serah who was now a l'Cie.

It was 13 days after the doors of the Bodhum Vestige opened that the beginning of the end began…

-Oerba Dia Vanille


	2. Chapter 1: Defiers of Fate

Chapter 1

Deifiers of Fate

The train carrying the citizens of the seaside city of Bodhum was descending fast. The tracks carried the train through a series of tunnels and chasms that made up the lower end of Cocoon toward the shell of a once prospering city toward the lowest point in the floating sphere. The hundreds of people aboard the train sat in silence, heads lowered as they brooded over their fate. Each compartment of the train was packed with people sitting thigh to thigh, knee to knee and shoulder to shoulder. Adults sat jammed on the benches, children sat on the floor, shoved between their parents legs.

The atmosphere was grim. Each and every person on the train aside from the PSICOM troops who patrolled each car every few minutes proudly boasting the gun they held, was headed for exile. Exile on Pulse! It had been pronounced by Primarch Galenith Dysley, just after Bodhum's annual fireworks, that because of the activation of the Pulse Vestige thirteen days ago, the awakening of a Pulse fal'Cie and the sighting of a branded Pulse l'Cie in the city of Bodhum that all civilians within the city were to be exiled to Pulse to live their lives there instead of wracking havoc upon Cocoon. PSICOM, the sanctum's military division, was deployed to the area of Bodhum immediately to assist in transporting the contaminated civilians to the train that would carry them to their new lives. Along with the civilians, the Vestige containing the Pulse fal'Cie was to be removed from Cocoon immediately.

Each civilian wore a white robe that marked them as an exile with a hood that covered their face. They also were handcuffed and linked to the person they were sitting next to, to create a long chain. It was almost as if the citizens were put on a leash and treated as animals. Of course, the people didn't go easily, but the sanctum continued to tell them that it was for the greater good of Cocoon. Their sacrifice would allow Cocoon and the millions of other citizens living there and unaffected by Pulse influence to continue to live in peace and prosper. It was then that the unwilling people were forced to stand in line with guns pointed at them by the PSICOM troops as they dressed in the exile robes and boarded the train for their new home.

The whole ruse was known as "The Purge" as the sanctum had named it. They were righteously purging Cocoon of all Pulse threats and allowing peace to continue. The citizens of Bodhum remained reluctant, and rightly so, for they had always been taught that the world below was like hell on earth. How on earth were they supposed to live in a world like that? Primarch Dysley had ensured they could survive on Pulse now that they had been placed under Pulse influence by being near a Pulse fal'Cie and its newly created l'Cie. The other people of Cocoon that lived in places far from Bodhum, like in the city of Palumpolum and Eden pushed for the purge. The purge didn't affect them, so why should they care? If Pulse threat was removed from Cocoon, they could continue their lives as if nothing ever happened. And so, as the train descended along the tracks toward its destination where the exile would take place, the people of Cocoon, soon to be people of Pulse sat in silence and wondered what their fate had in store for them.

There was one person sitting on that train in particular who wasn't brooding over her bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, nor was she wondering what her future had in store for her on Pulse. She was running over the last bit of her plan in her mind, she just needed to wait for the right time to strike. She kept her head low and her handcuffed arms on her lap as the PSICOM troops passed her, as she didn't want them to catch on to any expression her face might give away. She, conveniently, wasn't attached to the person sitting next to her, as the troops didn't have enough time to strap everyone together, due to the next train arriving to take the next batch of exiles. "_It's going to be difficult to get them while their off guard…there are so many of them…and I don't have my weapon…if I don't time this just right, I'll never get out of here…and Serah will be…."_ She was thinking to herself when the person next to her nudged her with his elbow.

"You sure about this?" he whispered, his voice deep with concern.

She didn't even look at him when she snapped "Be quiet!" quietly through her clenched teeth. She worked so hard to let some person she just met on the loading dock at Bodhum ruin this.

He ignored her and grinned. "Best of luck…"

She was about to scold him for almost drawing attention to them, when the train crashed through the gate to their destination, a place known as "The Hanging Edge" a once prosperous city on the outer edge of Cocoon. During the war that ensued against Pulse hundreds of years ago, Cocoon's shell was cracked just above where this once prospering city was. The crack allowed Pulse entities into Cocoon with ease and the city was abandoned. Even hundreds of years after the war, the people of Cocoon never repopulated the area because the sanctum filled their heads with the idea that Pulse could strike again any day and that would be the first place to be attacked. Eventually the place was pronounced off limits to civilians and it became the place where the Purge would take place.

When the train crashed through the holographic gate to the Hanging Edge, it caused the car the woman was sitting in to lurch a bit, throwing the PSICOM guard off balance. "_It's now or never" _she thought as ran from her seat. Being free from the other passengers proved to be more convenient than she thought. Thinking quickly she ran at the guard who was already off balance and rammed him into the side of the train using all her weight. The force of being knocked into a wall made him drop the small device he had in his hand to the ground. Without even blinking the woman stepped on it with the heel of her boot and smirked when she heard the cracking of plastic and the fizzing of the wires being severed. Almost instantly her handcuffs, along with the handcuffs of the other passengers popped open. The passengers who were attached to each other also became free.

The man that had been sitting next to her stood up immediately and cried "She did it!" as the other passengers began to scramble from their seats and look for a way off the train. They knew deep down, that even though the Primarch had told them they could survive on Pulse, something about exiling a whole city full of people seemed a little off.

Almost instantly everyone in the train began to rip off the white exile robes they were wearing. The woman who had set everyone free in her car stripped her robe to reveal a tall muscular body. Her strawberry blonde curly hair hung over her left shoulder. Her eyes were icy blue and full of determination. Yes it was true she just freed the exiles on the train, but that was far from freeing them, and she had much more important plans than escaping this hellish purge.

The other PSICOM officials on the train had been alerted and a handful of them stormed into the car, guns in hand ready to fire at any resisting exiles. Without a moment's hesitation the woman grabbed the gun off the guard she body checked into the wall and began to fire at the oncoming troops. The other exiles cowered together behind her as if she were some kind of guardian.

When the last solider fell, lifeless to the floor of the train the woman lowered her gun. The man that had been sitting next to her came up behind her and said "Hey, they all want to help" referring to the exiles who were cowering behind her.

She snapped "Good for them". She walked over to the door of the train car and forced it open. Peaking her head out she saw that fighting between the sanctum and the exiles had begun. Trains were derailed throughout the crumbled city and the exiles saw this as a chance to fight back from being kicked out of their home. "_If there's this much fighting going on…Snow and NORA must be here"_ she thought as she looked for a way to stop the moving train.

The man that had been sitting next to her was behind her again. "Your name is Lightning right? Funny name, but I'm not complaining" he held out a sword that was folded and compacted in the shape of a gun. "I'm Sazh if you forgot. This is yours right. I saw you hand it in on the purge train platform. I found it in the other room. They have a bunch of weapons in the compartments on the train."

Lightning turned to look at him. This was the first time she took the time to actually get a good look at her annoying companion. He was dark skinned with a large tuft of curly black hair that sat atop his head. He wore a large green overcoat and pair of khaki jeans with a gun holster at each hip. She had remembered that he had to turn in his guns on the platform too, but when she looked she saw that each holster had a gun. More than anything, however, she was surprised to see a chocobo chick pop out from the afro on his head. It looked at her and let out a soft tweet as if to say hello. She was about to ask him about the chick that was using his hair as a nest when the train lurched throwing the exiles to the ground. The harsh sound of steel being forced against itself filled the air around them. "_So much for finding a way to stop the train…"_ she thought.

She looked out the door and almost wished she hadn't. The sanctum had called upon the use of their mechanical weapons to back them up in fighting the exiles. Many lay dead, their bodies, scattered on the highways of rubble. The train had been stopped abruptly by another overturned train that was sprawled across the tracks ahead of them.

Sazh whispered to Lighting, "We best use this opportunity to run?"

Lightning took her beloved weapon and shoved it in the sheath that hung from the belt at her waist. She looked at the man named Sazh and said a quick "Thank you" and ran out the door without as much as a glance back. She had business to attend to, and with any luck, she'd be able to achieve the seemingly impossible and return home to her normal life with Serah. True, they'd have to find a new place to live since Bodhum, their hometown was now under complete jurisdiction of the sanctum and restricted to Cocoon civilians…but that was a small price to pay to have Serah back.

She stepped off the train onto a piece of crumbling highway. Somewhere deep within her heart, regret was creeping in. "_If I hadn't been so rude to Serah….If I had been more supportive…NO!"_ No, she couldn't let doubt set in, not with such an important mission ahead. Sh_e _couldn't lose her head.

Overhead the sanctum had begun the disposal of the Vestige. Several sanctum carriers worked as a team to begin hauling the large vestige across the space above the crumbled city. With a determined look on her face she set off to where the Vestige was being hauled. She needed to get aboard it before they dumped it on pulse. With one final deep breath, she took off running toward the Vestige.

Sazh who had been observing her from the train car saw her run of toward the sanctum soldiers approaching. "Away!" he yelled "I meant run away!" The purge exiles gathered behind him looking for direction. Sazh pointed them in the direction they needed to move before the sanctum troops could catch up with them. He on the other hand, was curious to follow this mysterious woman. The chocobo in his head trilled as if to ask him what he was doing walking the wrong way. "Don't ask chcocobo. She just intrigues me. I need to know why she willingly boarded the purge train. I guess we just can't catch a break, can we chocobo?" he asked as he ran off after Lightning toward the Vestige.

Oerba Dia Vanille thanked the Maker for her luck. Because of her fiery red pigtails, she stood out in the crowd at Bodhum…and because she stood out, she was placed on the first purge train. It just so happened that a Cocoon terrorist group was also on this train and made busy work of hijacking it as soon as it left the Bodhum station. The terrorist group took the PSICOM guards by surprise and managed to tackle most of them to the ground before they realized what was happening. One of the terrorists must have taken over the control car of the train because it came to an abrupt stop just after they passed gate to the Hanging Edge.

"Okay people let's move it. If we stay here any longer, we're dead" a young woman working with the terrorists called out. In her hand she held the remote that locked their handcuffs in place. Vanille felt her handcuffs pop open freeing her wrists. In a rush of panic the exiles rushed for the nearest door.

Though Vanille knew that being exiled to Pulse wasn't the worst thing that could happen, she had a bad feeling about the purge. Something about the sanctum rubbed her the wrong way, and thus the plan of the purge seemed off to her. When she stepped off the train she knew why.

The exiles were told they were to be taken to the Hanging Edge where PSICOM soldiers would be waiting to escort them on ships that would deport them to their new lives on Pulse. What greeted them was not an escort, but rather troops armed with guns. They weren't here to be escorted to their new lives on Pulse, they were here to be executed.

Eyes wide with petrifying fear, Vanille looked at the barricade of soldiers; the line of guns pointed at her and froze. "_Well…this is it…it's for the best I guess…"_ she was ready to close her eyes and accept her fate when someone grabbed her arm and pulled her to the ground just seconds before the soldiers opened fire on the exiles. She was pulled behind a piece of concrete that had been torn up from the street out of the line of fire. All around her, exiles fell to the ground, blood spilling in the street.

Vanille looked to her savior and saw an elderly woman with graying hair that stopped short just below her earlobes. Her eyes were almost as green as Vanille's. "Are you okay miss?"

Vanille looked at her and smiled. "I am now. Thank you"

"How old are you? You look no older than my boy here" the woman said softly. "Where's your family."

"I'm nineteen Ma'am. I was in Bodhum alone, when the Vestige was discovered to have a fal'Cie in it, I don't have anyone." Vanille replied.

"Well then you stay with me honey, we'll get out of this alive. Then you can go home and be safe with your family" The mother replied.

Other purge trains were starting to arrive. That's when the massacre began. Once the trains stopped moving on their tracks throughout the Hanging Edge, PSICOM troops boarded them and proceeded to execute the exiles. The sound of gunshots mixed with the anguish of screams. Blood began to stain the roads and the trains. Vanille, the kind mother and her son, along with a handful of other exiles, remained crouched behind the concrete rubble. They hadn't been spotted by PSICOM troops yet, but it was only a matter of time before they were.

Vanille was about to peek around to see if there was any other way to get out of the predicament they were in, when a tall man with dusty blonde hair stepped in front of her. He must have shed the white robe the exiles were forced into, because he wore dark black boots, a pair of worn pants and a huge white overcoat. His hair drifted in front of his eyes under the black hat he had jammed on his head. He looked at Vanille and grinned. She could see he hadn't shaved in a few days for his chin was covered in stubble.

"Emigration?" he questioned "it's more like they brought everyone here to be murdered."

Two other men and the woman who had set Vanille free on the train joined the man. Vanille knew immediately that these people were the terrorist group that hijacked the train. Though she didn't agree with the workings of a terrorist group, they were keeping her and the other hidden exiles alive, so sticking with them was probably the best way to stay alive.

"Snow I'm sorry I couldn't be any help" the younger of the two men said to the man with the stubble who appeared to be the leader of this terrorist group.

The man named Snow looked at his younger companion and said " Maqui, stay with these people. Your goal now is to protect them. We'll clear a path, you protect them." He turned to the other man "Gadot, you're with me up front." He turned to the woman and said "Lebreau, back us up"

The group charged at the troops ahead with guns they had picked up off the fallen soldiers in the train. Vanille remained crouched with her hands over her ears as she heard more gunshots and more screams. The kind mother that had saved her put her arm around Vanille. "Its okay dear, we're in good hands. They will take care of us."

Vanille wished she could believe her, but she was shaking with terror. All of this was happening because of the threat of Pulse. Thousands of people were being murdered in cold blood because of the fear that Pulse may have contaminated them. Why couldn't the sanctum just let these people live on Pulse? Why did they have to murder them? She was about to start letting the tears that had been welling up in her eyes flow, when the man called Snow and his partners returned to their hiding spot.

"Is everyone okay?" he asked.

Everyone remained silent.

"You can relax" Snow assured them. "We won't let you be deported to Pulse, and we won't let them kill you either. "

After another awkward silence, a man from the back of the hiding exile group stood up and said "I'll help you". Slowly more and more people stood up volunteering to help ward off the PSICOM troops. Lebreau and Gadot handed out guns they had taken from the fallen bodies to the volunteers.

"Those who want to fight follow me and Gadot" Snow announced. "I have two guns, who wants them?"

The kind mother stood up and held out her arms for a gun. Snow looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "You sure?" he asked. She smiled and nodded. "Mother's are tough you know." Snow laughed and handed her the gun which seemed too big for her to hold, but surprisingly she grasped it with ease.

"Okay, we're gonna go fight up front. Those who aren't fighting stay with Lebreau." He took the other gun he was holding and held it out for the mother's son to take. "Here hold on to this…just in case".

The boy shook his head and backed away. "No" he whispered.

Snow sighed. He didn't have time for this. "Who wants to hold on to this?"

There was silence. After a moment's pause Vanille spoke up. "I'll do it."

Snow raised his eyebrows even higher when he looked to see a young curly red pigtailed girl looking at him expectantly. "You sure?"

She nodded. "Yep."

Snow smiled. "Fine but be careful with it."

"I will" she whispered.

Lebreau lead the exiles in hiding along a road that took them to lesser traveled areas where confrontation from PSICOM soldiers would be less likely. She wasn't sure exactly of how to escape this place, but her first priority was to get the exiles to a safer location. Snow led the group of fighters along the main path cutting down any soldiers that stood in their way. As they fought, Snow noticed that many more trains had arrived and the fighting had gotten more intense. His train wasn't the only train fighting back. Other exiles were fighting the soldiers and desperately trying to find a way out. He also noticed that the sanctum began to carry the Vestige across the sky toward the place where they'd dump it back on Pulse. He needed to get aboard that Vestige no matter what.

While he was distracted looking at the Vestige being hauled off, there was a huge explosion. PSICOM decided to stop playing around and pull out bigger weapons. A large helicopter shot its cannon fire at the highway that snow and his people were standing on. He heard a sickening crack as the highway began to crumble and crack in half. The exiles began to run toward either side of the highway that was beginning to fall and sink toward the despairing darkness below them. People were sliding off, clawing at the concrete desperately to grasp onto something to no avail.

Snow felt himself start to slide. He dropped the gun he was holding and fell to his knees and began rolling toward the darkness. He clawed for something to grasp onto. Just as he was about to tumble over the edge, his hands found a pipe sticking raggedly out of the concrete. He was about to pull himself up onto solid ground when another body tumbled passed him. It was the mom that insisted on following him. He instinctively grasped onto her arm before she rolled off the sagging highway into the darkness. Snow now hung, one hand on the pipe, the other holding onto the mother.

The mother looked at him and said "Please….my son….take him home"

Snow's eyes went wide. "You hang in there you hear! I'm not about to let go of you!"

She smiled "It's okay…" Her eyes closed and snow felt her body get heavier. Her hand was slipping slowly out of his grasp.

"NO!" he screamed. "I will not let you go" But it was getting harder and harder to hold her. Her limp body was now swinging over the dark edge.

The PSICOM helicopter took another shot at the highway as if to finish the job. The shockwave of the hit was too much for Snow. He dropped the woman. "NO!" he cried out in pain as he watched her fall into the darkness. Another wave of attacks hit, this time Snow lost his grip and fell. The last thing he remembered before falling into the darkness with the rest of the exiles he rescued was the image of the mother's unconscious body falling through the air.

Unbeknownst to Snow, the mother's son watched in horror from another highway not far off, as the whole scene unfolded. He watched this cocky man take down hoards and hoards of PSICOM troops, but in one stupid moment of basking in his own glory he lost everything. All those people lost their lives. And his mother….that son of a bitch dropped her to save himself, and even then he couldn't do that. They all fell into the darkness below.

He couldn't move. His green eyes were filled with horror and anger.

Vanille stood next to the young boy and watched the scene before her. Her eyes welled up with tears again. All of this was too horrible to watch. She needed to get out of this place. Anywhere but here. She shook the boy by his shoulders. They needed to move, or else they too would be spotted by the soldiers. Lebreau and the other exiles were already far ahead searching for a safe place to hide. "Come on!" she cried "We have to move"

He looked at her with sadness glazed in his eyes but remained silent.

"Snap out of it!" Vanille yelled "If you want to stay alive, we need to get out of here. "

He looked at this red haired girl, is face was contorted as if holding back tears. After a few more moments of silence he nodded. He wanted to speak, but his throat had closed. Vanille grabbed his hand and pulled him down the road after Lebreau. If they were to get out of there alive, this would be their best chance.


	3. Chapter 2: To the Vestige

Chapter 2

To the Vestige

Sazh was having a hard time keeping up with Lightning. She moved swiftly and she knew how to use her weapon. It was for that reason that Sazh kept his distance from her when she went at the waves of PSICOM troops swinging her sword.

"Say Lightning" Sazh asked. "Why are you here?"

She smirked but ignored him. She had no idea why this man was following her. Could he not guess that she was headed directly for the Vestige? She was headed directly into the heart of the battle. If this man was smart, he would have turned around and helped the other exiles out. They were on their own. She didn't have time to be helping exiles hide from being massacred. Only one thing mattered now, and that was getting to the Vestige before it was dumped back on Pulse, where it belonged.

"You're a soldier right?" Sazh questioned.

She turned to look at him, her eyes were icy with contempt. "Ex-soldier for your information."

"Don't know why you would have done that. Soldiers and their families were exempt from the purge. What is your objective down here? You're prancing around like a woman on a mission." He replied.

She sighed. Apparently her objective wasn't clear to him. "The Vestige! The Pulse fal'Cie! That's my objective."

His jaw dropped. "The fal'Cie! Are you serious?"

She began running along the road again. The gunshots were getting more intense now. "I shouldn't have let you follow me."

Sazh hesitated for a moment but followed her anyway "You're wrong you know!"

"Then keep up and try not to get yourself killed," she snapped.

He jogged along side of her. "This is bad" he said gesturing to the other purge trains in the distance being shot at. "Everyone is going to be in such bad condition that they won't even last a day on Pulse."

Lightning let out a snort, "Are you serious?"

"What?"

"The sanctum's aim is to eliminate all Pulse threats from Cocoon correct?" Lightning asked Sazh.

Sazh nodded. "Well yeah. Pulse is dangerous."

Lightning rolled her eyes. "So why go to the trouble of dumping these people on Pulse and providing Pulse more people to fight Cocoon with?"

Sazh dropped his head "So that's how it is, huh?"

"Get it now, The purge is just a cover up for the massacre that is happening here. The sanctum gets rid of the Pulse threats here and hides the blood on their hands from the people of Cocoon."

Sazh's eyes narrowed as anger flashed on his face. "Did you know about this Solider?" he raised a gun to her chest.

She pushed it away and calmly said " No. PSICOM is in charge of the purge and PSICOM is part of the sanctum. I was in the defense corps. The only reason why I know about it is because I can put the pieces of the puzzle together."

"Still… soldiers are soldiers." Sazh muttered. "Why are you headed for the Pulse fal'Cie anyway? You're not thinking of taking it down are you? You'll be a l'Cie in no time that way."

"None of your business" she snapped. "Now you know about my objective. If you don't like it, you don't have to follow."

Sazh thought a moment but with a sigh he said "No, I'll follow. I have business to attend to as well." He pointed to a higher road off a short distance. "If we can get up there I'm sure we can jump on to the Vestige as they move it across that area."

For the first time since Sazh had been following her, she thanked the Maker that he did. He was slightly helpful in combat and he did provide company. So far he didn't prove to be slowing her down much. If he could help her get onto the Vestige, then she promised herself to try and help him with whatever it is he came here for as well.

Snow felt pain. It started in is back and surged to all limbs paralyzing him. He couldn't move without wincing from the electrifying pain. His head was throbbing, and his lungs felt like they had been crushed. Each breath felt even more difficult to take. He heard a woman's voice calling out to him

"Snow?"

"Serah?" he called back "Serah where are you?"

"Snow are you alright?"

"Serah I'm fine. I'm here"

"Snow wake up"

He listened closely. That wasn't Serah's voice. Her voice was softer, gentler, calmer. This voice seemed deeper, more panicked. He started to bring is consciousness back into focus. That's when he felt the pain as it surged through him. He coughed. God how his lungs hurt.

"Snow, open your eyes"

It took him great effort but he managed to crack an eye open. The person's face above him slowly came into focus. It was Lebreau. "Snow, come on, wake up" she called. Lebreau and the exiles had met up with Gadot and Maqui on a much lower highway in the Hanging Edge. It was there that they found dozens of the exiles that had offered to fight, Snow included, sprawled on the ground. Some had broken bones, but most were dead.

Snow's ribcage was bruised. He figured he broke a few ribs, but he landed in a pile of trash which had absorbed most of the impact. "Ahhh"

"Get a grip" Gadot called "You're supposed to be our fearless leader"

Snow managed a smile but winced when he moved his torso. Yeah he definitely broke some ribs. Lebreau helped him stand. "I got it…." He assured them. He looked at the people around him. There were still quite a few of the exiles from Lebreau's group still around. He remembered the mother and her wish. "That kid…which one was it?" he asked

"What are you talking about?" Gadot asked. "You don't have time for this. Your future wife is in those ruins. The same ruins they are getting ready to dump on Pulse. Hurry up and go after her already."

"Serah! I'm on my way" Snow called. Now all he had to do was find a way to get to higher ground safely so that he could get to the Vestige. But now they were lower than ever and getting to the Vestige from this point was pretty much impossible.

"Lucky for you, we managed to nick these off a few of the PSICOM guards" Lebreau said pointing to a pair of specially developed motor bikes that were used for both travel on the ground, and travel in the air.

Snow's eyes lit up. "No way! You're a lifesaver Lebreau." He jumped on one of the motor bikes. Grasping onto the handle bars he flipped a few switches and forced his foot down on the gas pedal. Flames shot out of the muffler from behind and Snow felt the bike jerk forward as it began to lift off the ground.

"Remember Snow, NORA is stronger than the military! Go save Serah and we'll escort these people home." Lebreau called.

Snow let out a haughty laugh and punched the air. "You got it! See you soon!" He floored the petal again and shot off into the distance toward the Vestige.

From the ground among the group of exiles who had followed Lebreau, Vanille saw Snow talking with his comrades. She was amazed that he had survived the fall. Luckily for him he fell on a lower highway rather than into the darkness that loomed below them. She knew her companion; the young boy who was with her was fuming in anger when he saw that Snow had survived the fall when his own mother had not.

She softly placed an arm on his shoulder and whispered softly "Don't you have something to say to him?"

The boy remained silent.

"You'll feel better once you talk to him. Tell him how you really feel." Vanille said. "It will continue to eat at you until you do."

The boy looked up at Vanille. "Yeah…I guess your right"

Vanille got a good look at his face. His skin was pale and his silver hair went to his shoulders and spiked outward. His eyes were remarkably green, nearly as green as Vanille's own. "Lets go then" she said cheerfully.

The boy hesitated. "But…"

She smiled. "Do you want me to go with you?"

The boy was about to answer when Snow jumped onto one of the motor bikes and took off into the sky yelling "Serah! I'm on my way"

"NO! Hey wait Mister" Vanille called, but it was hopeless. Snow was riding off into the distance toward the Vestige.

"I guess I won't get to tell him" the boy said softly.

Vanille wasn't about to give up. She spied the other un occupied motor bike sitting just beyond Lebreau and Gadot who were lecturing the remaining exiles on how to stay alive as long as possible and searching for a way out of the Hanging Edge. "Do you think you could control one of those?" Vanille asked her companion pointing at the remaining bike.

The boy surveyed the surrounding and nodded "Yeah…my dad taught me how to ride something similar. It might not be smooth at first, but once I get the hang of it, I can handle it."

Vanille smiled. "Great". She grabbed the boy's hand and ran passed Lebreau and Gadot without pausing to look back. They were nearly at the bike before the leaders of the group even knew what they were doing.

"Hey!" Gadot yelled. "What do you kid's think you're doing?"

Lebreau charged after them "Wait, don't touch those"

Vanille reached the motor bike first. She jumped on and grabbed her companion and jammed him on the seat in front of her. The boy made quick work of firing up the engines. The bike jerked forward nearly knocking Lebreau, Gadot and the remaining exiles to the ground.

"I thought you knew how to work this thing" Vanille cried as she wrapped her arms around her companion's waist.

"This isn't nearly the same model I was taught on" he snapped back. The bike lurched backward. He gripped the handle bars. "Hang on…I think I got the hang of it" He pushed the pedal to the floor of the bike. The bike lurched forward once more and took off. It raced through the air lurching at odd angles. Vanille gripped him tighter fighting the urge to scream.

Eventually the bike calmed its jerking movements. The boy was getting the hang of using the bike. "Where to?" he asked

Vanille pointed toward the Vestige. "He went that way"

He turned to look at her. "You gotta be kidding me. If we get to close to those ruins we may become Pulse l'Cie. There's a Pulse fal'Cie in there you know."

"It will be okay" Vanille assured him as he changed course and drove off toward the Vestige in the distance.

It was clear Vanille wasn't afraid of Pulse, the Vestige or the chance of becoming a l'Cie, but what she couldn't count on was the fact that the fal'Cie sleeping in the Vestige was pulling the fates of many individuals together. It was pulling this boy she was traveling with, the man named Snow, and even Vanille herself were headed straight into the jaws of what the people of Cocoon feared. What Vanille also didn't know was that her life was to be intertwined with two other individuals also headed for the Vestige. It would only be a matter of time before they were gathered and the fal'Cie could pull on the strings of their fates and knot them together as it saw fit.


	4. Chapter 3: Where Men Fear to Tread

Chapter 3

Where men fear to tread

Vanille couldn't breathe. Her cheek was pressed against cool stone, but that was all she could make out of her current situation. It was dark, her body was pressed against a stone wall, and her lungs couldn't draw in air. There was a peculiar pressure on her back, probably from the force pressing her against the stone. She tried to move but found that the weight atop her was too much. She managed to let out a soft groan and her eyelids fluttered open. That explained the darkness. She was met with the scene of a dimly lit room made entirely of stone.

She wriggled around a bit more freeing her left arm from under her torso. Forcing her body to move she propped herself up on her elbows and managed to twist around to see what the weight was, that was holding her down. It was the boy that she had been traveling with. He was unconscious draped over her back. A thin line of blood trickled down from his forehead.

It all came flooding back to her, the Purge, the train, the terrorists, and the bike they stole. Once the boy had control of the bike they nearly made it to the Vestige with no problems. Unfortunately they were spotted by PSICOM troops and shot. He lost control of the bike and they crashed into the side of the vestige.

She managed to twist herself free of the boy's weight and surveyed the surroundings. "That was close." She whispered. She grabbed the boy's shoulders and gently nudged him. He groaned and reluctantly opened his eyes. When he saw Vanille he immediately shot up and almost regretted it. A wave of nausea overcame him and he fought the urge to vomit. His head was throbbing. He placed his hand to his head and wondered where the familiar yet sickening coppery smell of blood was coming from.

"Your head…its…well..its bleeding" Vanille said softly

The boy removed his gloved hand from his forehead and saw the stains of blood. Fear shot across his green eyes.

"Hold on. I can clean that up" she replied as she took off the purge robe she was wearing and used the sleeve as a cloth. She dabbed the wound near his scalp and cleared away the blood. Luckily it wasn't deep. "It will be alright. Just let the blood dry."

He got a good look at her. Since she wore the robe, he could only make out her facial features and hair color. Now he saw that she wore a pink camisole and brightly colored orange skirts, both adorned with embroidery and beadwork like he had never seen before. Wrapped around her waist was a half skirt of what looked to be bear skin and she wore a pair of sensible and well worn boots. She looked like she had stepped from a tropical paradise.

The boy copied her action and removed his Purge robe as well. He wore a dark pair of pants and dark shirt. Over his shirt was a brightly colored orange and yellow jacket. Around his neck was a green bandana that matched his eyes. This was traditional Cocoon attire; Where as Vanille's outfit was not and was categorized as something slightly eccentric.

When both were feeling up to it, they stood up observing the area.

"Where is the…." Vanille began but her breath caught in her throat as she turned around. "Uh-oh"

Sitting in a pile of rubble and twisted beyond distinction was the bike they used to get here in the first place. They had crashed directly into and through the wall of the Vestige. The boy ran over to the bike and sighed. "Well, there's our ride out of here. Now what?"

She surveyed the area. The inside of the vestige looked like a labyrinth with twisting stairs and corridors that seemed to melt into one another. It was also very dim. Soft lights glimmered from the walls along the corridors but the mist inside the Vestige was so thick it made the room only barely lit. "Well, I guess its just us then?"

He snapped "Well what did you think? Even PSICOM soldiers know not to go near the fal'Cie. You become a Pulse l'Cie, and you're finished."

Vanille looked at him with slight confusion in her eyes. "What do you mean by finished exactly?"

The boy looked at her, astonished he was hearing this. Didn't this dumb girl know what life was like as a Pulse l'Cie? "What do you mean by that Miss…" but he stopped. He just realized he didn't even know his companion's name. He had been traveling all this way with her, and his mother risked her life to save this girl, and he didn't even know her name.

She smiled "Vanille"

"What?"

"My name" she said "what's yours?" she held out her hand to shake his.

He hesitated but obliged. "Hope. My name is Hope"

"It's a pleasure to meet you Hope. Since we're here, why not have a look around?" Vanille suggested.

Hope looked horrified. "Why?"

"Because, we need to find a way out of here eventually don't we?" she replied. She ran off down a corridor. Hope struggled to keep up with her, but the dim rooms and swirling mists were making it very hard to keep her in his view.

"Hey check it out" Vanille called off in the distance. When he caught up with her he found her near an oddly shaped pillar. Vanille was behind it rifling through something. She emerged holding an intricate staff looking object. "What do you think?"

"What is it?" Hope questioned.

"It's a fishing rod silly" she replied nonchalantly. "I can use it as a weapon." She began to pose with her newfound toy and started swinging it around.

Hope stood with stupid look on his face as he watched her. She was far too cheerful. It seemed….odd…especially because of the predicament they were both in. He was beginning to regret chasing after Snow. Who cares if he never got to talk to him and confront him about his mother? At least he'd still be alive. Now he was beginning to question his future. Stay here too much longer and he was sure to become a Pulse l'Cie. "Why do you want to use it as a weapon?" he asked Vanille who was still happily twirling the rod around.

"PSICOM and the sanctum may not venture in here, but that doesn't mean that we won't run into any kinds of beasties and monsters in here. Plus, PSICOM troops won't come in here, but they can certainly send in their robotic toys to kill us without fear of becoming l'Cie themselves." She tossed him a yellow boomerang. "Will that work? It's the only thing in here that it looks like you can control."

Hope peaked around the pillar and saw that there was a door attached to the back and the inside was stuffed with weaponry. The pillar served as a kind of closet or miniature armory. "Um, yeah, a boomerang will work"

"Great" she cried.

Hope was trying to understand this girl's way of thinking, but he could come up with nothing more than the fact that she was crazy. "Aren't you scared?" he asked as she led the way through the twisted corridors.

She thought for a moment. "Um, no Not so much."

"You really don't get it do you?"

She turned abruptly with her hands on her hips. "I get it just fine! Pulse fal'Cie and their l'Cie are bad news. That's why the people of Cocoon want them kicked out. Live too close to the fal'Cie or come in contact with it's l'Cie and you've got yourself a one way ticket to Pulse. That is the Purge in a nutshell."

Hope nodded "yeah, but if they catch us in here, they'll for sure purge us to Pulse"

Vanille rolled her eyes. For the first time she looked irritated. "Dummy. We were on the Purge train. We are gonna get purged no matter what. At this rate, we'll be lucky if they purge us at all. I think they really just want to kill all of us. Everyone in Cocoon is so afraid of Pulse they will do anything to rid themselves of it."

"I would rather die than go to Pulse. Pulse is hell on earth." Hope spat. "At least if they kill me here, it would be quick and I could be with mom again. I don't want to have to go through the hell of Pulse before I die."

Vanille's eyes softened. She walked up to him and pulled him into her arms. "We'll be okay. Calm down."

He pushed away. Anger etched on his face. "Get off me" He was about to give her hell for touching him, when another voice cut through the air

"Serah! Can you hear me? Where are you?" It was Snow.

Hope looked around. He couldn't see Snow anywhere through the dim corridors. He sounded like he was on a higher level than they were. "_Fine then…I'm coming for you Snow, and when I find you, I will tell you exactly how I feel…then I will kill you…like you killed my mother"_

Lightning was exhausted. Her arms were burning in protest, but she continued to strike her sword against the door of the Vestige which was firmly sealed shut. The sound of metal scratching at stone filled the air giving Sazh the chills. He sat off to the side of the corridor that lead up to the doors of the Vestige and watched Lightning hack away at the door to no avail.

"Still won't budge?" he asked her.

Sweat was beginning to form on her brow and was threatening to drip into her eyes. "_I don't see you helping"_ she thought silently but thought better of saying it. Though she still wasn't thrilled with her traveling companion, he did help her get this far and he did watch her back in the midst of combat.

"I think the door's winning" he replied trying to lighten the mood.

Lightning was about to snap on him when it occurred to her that maybe slashing away at the door was not the best way to trick the fal'Cie into letting her in. She was there to persuade it, not to anger it. "Why didn't I listen" she said to no one in particular.

Sazh got up from the spot he was sitting on the floor. The chocobo chick in his head peered out curiously. "I beg your pardon?"

She ignored him and placed her hand to the door. Slowly she breathed in and let the memories flood back in her mind. She remembered how angry she was when Serah had told her that she was made a l'Cie by a fal'Cie sleeping deep within the Bodhum Vestige. Her own sister, a l'Cie! And as a member of the defense corps, it would be her responsibility to hand Serah over to the sanctum and PSICOM where they would no doubt have a public execution of the dangerous l'Cie. On top of that her sister told her that she was getting married to that arrogant hard headed idiot Snow. She was so angry she stormed out of the house telling Serah that she was going to have to turn her over to the sanctum for the good of Cocoon. "Its all my fault. If I had just listened and supported Serah, she wouldn't be trapped in here."

"I beg your pardon" Sazh whispered again.

Without warning Lightning's voice hardened. "Get back! And cover your ears."

Sazh's eyes widened. "You're gonna try a blast charge?"

Lightning glared at him.

"Wait! Hold on! Hold on!" He ran to the end of the corridor and fell to his knees. He placed his hands over his ears and squeezed his eyes shut and yelled. "Okay! Go for it! Make it happen."

Lightning placed her hand to the door and activated her blast charge particle accelerator. "I'm so sorry. Please let me in." Surprisingly the door didn't explode with the force of the blast charge, but rather it began to glow. "Please" she pleaded again. She wasn't sure if she was speaking more to her sister who was somewhere inside, or to the fal'Cie that was keeping her prisoner.

With a sudden jolt of energy the lights in the corridor they were standing in burst with energy. Slowly the door creaked open. Sazh, feeling the rumble of the door behind him uncovered his ears and said "Hey, how'd you get it to open?"

Lighting was so caught up in her own amazement that her plan worked, that she didn't bother to answer Sazh. Not that it was anything new. The sooner she rescued Serah and stated her business with the fal'Cie, the sooner she could go home and talk some sense into that girl. No way was she going to stand around and watch her sister marry that bonehead. The sooner this happened the sooner she could get rid of her annoying companion and get out of here. Deep down she had the feeling that something was watching her every move and it gave her the chills. She walked through the open doors into the Vestige.

"Fine! Ladies first, after you" Sazh retorted to her silence. He followed her in and the doors abruptly closed behind them.

The Vestige was overrun with mechanical PSICOM units. It didn't surprise Lightning in the least. At least PSICOM could keep control over the fal'Cie and Serah inside the Vestige without actually going in themselves this way. She fought effortlessly through waves of the monsters. Having been so exhausted trying to break in, her renewed hope had given her the strength to continue further.

"We best be on our guard" Sazh said as he jogged to keep up with her. "If those mechanical nightmares are in here, there's the chance that some PSICOM troops are too. Except they'd probably be l'Cie by now…not even human any more…just monsters with the focus to kill us all."

Lightning fought the urge to tell him off. To tell him that her own sister was made a l'Cie and was probably given the focus to kill them all. She wanted to tell him that l'Cie didn't have their humanity stripped away at the time of branding and that they still remained the same, just with a task that must be completed. She wanted to tell him to keep his nose out of other people's business and quit following her around and leave her be, but time and again he somehow proved to be worth far too much traveling with her and aiding her quest. Though she hated to admit it, he had gotten her to smile a little, and there was no way she could have made it this far without him.

"My sister" she whispered.

Sazh looked at her quizzically. "Excuse me?"

"Serah, my sister. I came here for her."

"So miss tough stuff has a sister?" Sazh questioned. "So what exactly does this sister of yours have to do with you stepping down from Sanctum guard and risking your life venturing into the realm of the fal'Cie?"

"Serah was…." She began but felt her throat close up on her. The words wouldn't come. Somehow deep down she didn't want to admit it, but she hung on to a thread of hope that "none of this was real. That she would wake up from this nightmare. "She was made a l'Cie"

Sazh let out an involuntary gasp. Eyes wide with horror he whispered "A pulse l'Cie? You mean it's your sister that started this whole purge mess?"

"Yes!" Lightning snapped. She was fighting back tears at this point and found it easier to channel her frustration and anguish about the situation into determination to save Serah. "I'm here to save her. She was captured by the fal'Cie here in the Vestige. Her bonehead fiancé convinced her to come back to the vestige after she was branded to ask the fal'Cie to help her with her focus. Needless to say the wretched thing took her prisoner and the Sanctum sealed the Vestige and began stage one of the Purge."

"So, what's her focus then?" Sazh asked.

Lightning didn't respond.

"It must have been big if she intended to ask the fal'Cie for help. It was probably to destroy Cocoon or something." Sazh replied.

"I didn't ask her" Lightning retorted. "I didn't want to believe it was real. So I didn't want her to say or do anything to prove me wrong. I didn't want her to tell me the fal'Cie branded her so she would destroy Cocoon, because then, I would have lost hold of the hope that this was all some sort of misunderstanding."

Sazh looked at her awkwardly. This changed things. If her sister was a l'Cie, then she'd probably do anything to protect her. L'Cie needed to be destroyed before they completed their focus or turned to Cie'th. "So…. Suppose your sister was given the focus to destroy all of Cocoon. Either she completes it kills us all, or more likely she fails and turns into a monster, a Cie'th. You'd best just put her out of her misery and…..well….you know."

Lightning turned on him, her sword held against his neck. She was furious, but on the inside she was hurting. She knew he was right. The best ending for Serah was to die, but she couldn't bring herself to believe that entirely and somewhere in some corner of her mind she thought that maybe begging the fal'Cie for mercy and it would release Serah from its grip. More than anything Lightning wanted to hold on to the hope that she wouldn't be the last remaining member of the Farron family.

"Just say it already! I know what you're thinking!" she snapped. "Just put her out of her misery and kill her! You know, its people like you that start horrendous things like the purge!" She retracted her sword and continued walking down the dark hall of the Vestige. He helped her get this far, but from here on out, she was finished being nice with him, this was her mission and she intended on finishing it.

Vanille and Hope were following the sounds of Snow's battle cries through the Vestige which had gone from narrow hallways to a labyrinth of open passages. The only thing indicating that they were getting closer to their goal was the sound of Snow's voice getting louder and louder.

The two of them reached an open chamber with vaulted ceilings. The mist that swirled through the corridors dispersed and the lighting was much better.

"We must be pretty close to the center of this thing" Vanille chirped. "This looks like an outer chamber or something."

Hope couldn't see anything good about it. "The closer to the center of this thing we get, the closer to the fal'Cie right?"

Vanille nodded "Probably, but it also means we're getting closer to Snow too."

Hope wanted to abandon his quest to get revenge on Snow and run away. Nothing was worth coming into contact with a fal'Cie. He mustered up his courage and took a deep breath ready to tell Vanille he changed his mind and wanted to turn around when he saw them out of the corner of his eye.

"What are those?" he questioned as he pointed a shaking finger down a dark corridor.

Tall figures trudged down the hall closer and closer to their prey. Their form was semi-human-like, but their flesh was white and looked burned and melted in places. They gave off an odor that resembled rank meat. Throbbing brightly at their core was a pulsing red light, perhaps the remnants of a human heart?

Vanille didn't scream, nor did she run. She gripped her weapon to her chest ready for a battle but didn't spring into action. Her face was somber. "They're Cie'th."

Hope covered his nose and fought the urge to vomit and half wondered why Vanille didn't.

"They were l'Cie who didn't complete their focus in time." Vanille continued. "They're hostile to humans."

Cie'th began pouring out of every corridor that led to the large Chamber. The two companions were surrounded in a matter of seconds. Hope pulled out his boomerang ready to fight, but he knew that there was no possible way that just the two of them could take down that many of the hideous creatures. For a second he thought "_well, at least I won't have to live as a l'Cie and die, this will just bring the end quicker."_ He closed his eyes ready to accept his fate when he heard a very familiar voice.

"Get away from those kids!"

Hope opened one eye to see Cie'th bodies go flying across the room. Before he could see who had done it, another body crashed to the floor. Standing on an elevator that had descended from some floor above was Snow. His grin was wide as he flawlessly punched the Cie'th clearing a path from where he stood to where Hope and Vanille were surrounded.

Vanille took advantage of the diversion and began using her rod to take down the Cie'th as well. Hope followed in step but couldn't concentrate. The man he loathed and had risked his life coming here in search of was standing right next to him. The man he wanted to kill was just feet away. He could do something drastic. He could trip Snow and hope that maybe the Cie'th would finish the job. He wanted to so badly, but couldn't bring himself to do it. Snow at that point in time was keeping him alive, and as long as Snow had his back, he felt he should do the same.

"There, that should do it" Vanille said softly as the last of the Cie'th fell to the stone floor. It became eerily quiet in the chamber. Snow was the first to speak up.

"What are you kids doing here? You should go. If you don't think you can walk, find somewhere to hide and stay put and wait for me. After I rescue Serah, I'll find you and we can all escape this nightmare together."

Vanille raised an eyebrow and whispered "Who's Serah?"

Snow grinned. Vanille noted a set of seemingly perfect glimmering white teeth. "She's my darling wife…well, future darling wife that is. I'm gonna save her, make that fal'Cie remove her brand and we're gonna have a happy ever after."

Hope gasped. "Wait…this Serah girl is a Pulse l'Cie?"

Snow nodded.

"But, she's the enemy. You'll go and rescue the enemy but you can't even save my…..my…." Hope choked. The words were caught in his throat. He could barely feel Vanille place her hands comfortingly on his shoulders.

"Hey, I know it sounds stupid, but it's what I gotta do" Snow replied. "Listen to what I said. Go find a place to hide; I'll come for you in a bit." Before Hope could say another word, he ran down an arched corridor that led to the heart of the Vestige.

Vanille sighed. "We should hide and wait for him. There's nothing else here for us."

Hope snorted. "Be rescued? By him? Yeah right! As if I'd let that happen. Because of him my mom is dead!"

"Well then, let's go tell this to him. If you don't you will always feel this pain. Tell him how you feel, then act upon it." Vanille whispered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked

"I saw how you acted in that fight. You wanted to hurt him didn't you? You wanted to hit him while he was off guard. Trust me, until you talk with him, nothing is going to help." She replied.

"Alright" hope replied. "Let's go". He took off running down the hall. Vanille scurried after him trying to keep up.


	5. Chapter 4: The Gift of Eternity

Chapter 4

The gift of eternity

Lightning was trying to get rid of Sazh, but the man kept following her despite her snide remarks and quick movements. He had apologized to her multiple times and though she had told him she accepted the apology, this was still something she had to do alone. She only wished Serah could accept her apology so easily.

She climbed one last pair of stairs in the central chamber and gasped. "Serah!"

Nothing had prepared her for the sight that lay before her. Serah lay unconscious in the center of the floor. Her arms and legs were covered in bruises and scratches. Her hair tangled and matted as it lay sprawled upon the floor. Her left arm had a dingy bandage wrapped around it. Her white blouse and red skirt were stained with blood and torn. How long had Serah been in this state?

Lighting ran to her sister's side and cradled her head in her lap. "Serah please wake up."

Sazh inched up behind her and felt his own heart clench. "That poor girl" he whispered.

Lightning untied the bandage around her sister's arm to reveal the brand of a pulse l'Cie. This confirmed it. Serah really was a l'Cie, and even worse, the brand was different from when her sister showed it to her yesterday. More complex looking perhaps. "Okay, let's go! Before the soldiers figure out we've got her." Lighting called but when she looked at Sazh she stopped. "What's wrong?"

Sazh took a fearful step back. "That girl….she's a l'Cie"

"I told you that already" Lightning snapped.

"I didn't really believe you then. She's dangerous. An enemy of Cocoon." Sazh said voice quivering slightly.

"So you think that I should just kill her out of love?" Lightning retorted.

"Well…yeah if it means…" Sazh began, but was cut off by the chime of Serah's soft voice.

"Sis?"

Lightning looked at her sister. "Serah!"

Serah's eyes fluttered open to reveal eyes the color of soft grey clouds.

"Serah!" Snow's voice cut through the air as he raced into the room. "Serah I'm coming!"

Serah smiled. "My hero is here….?"

Snow ran up to his future wife and began to lift her into his arms. "Lets all go home together." He was so over joyed to be holding the love of his life he didn't realize Hope and Vanille had joined them. Vanille was wearing an expression of shock.

"Let go of her!" Lighting screamed.

"Sis, what's this all about" Snow replied with a shocked voice. "I'm her hero, I can save her."

"Sis" she yelled. "You're delusional! You haven't even married her yet. And don't tell me this hero stuff, you couldn't even protect her from the fal'Cie taking her captive. You're the reason she's in this state! You're the reason that we're here at all!"

"But sis," Serah replied weakly. "He can protect me. Promise me, promise me that you will all protect Cocoon."

"Serah what is this all about?" Lightning asked but Snow was holding her close and telling her "Of course I'll protect Coccon, just like I am going to protect you now."

Lightning's eyes were filled with fear. "Serah is that your focus? Is that what the fal'Cie told you to do, protect Cocoon?"

"You don't need to worry about that Serah" Snow assured her. "You, Cocoon, I'll protect everyone. We can do it together."

Serah smiled. "Thank you."

Her body grew light as she began to levitate out of Snow's grasp. She began to emit a cerulean glow as she was pulled into the air. Vanille watched in horror as Serah gave into the legendary eternal slumber known as crystal stasis. Slowly starting from her feet upward her body began to crystalize until her entire being was encased in a crystalline statue. Before she was entirely encased, she let a single tear slide down her cheek. As it fell from her chin, it too was caught up in the process of crystallization.

Slowly, the now crystalline Serah floated back downward and landed softly upon the stone floor. The crystal tear landed in Snow's outstretched hand. He stood there shifting his gaze from Serah to the crystal tear in terror.

"Why" was all Vanille could whisper. She wore the same expression of horror as Snow and Lightning.

"If a l'Cie completes their focus, they become crystalized and are granted eternal life" Hope said softly remembering the legends his mother often told him as bedtime stories. "So its true."

Snow swallowed and said "Serah, you did your best."

Lighting clenched her fist and before she could think she punched him….hard. "You did your best? Don't even screw with me like that."

"Serah's alive!" he replied "The l'Cie legend states that if she completes her focus she's crystalized given eternal life. It must be true. Serah is in there somewhere! She's alive! I am her fiancé and I promised that I would always protect her." His voice was beginning to shake. It was beginning to crack.

"Guys, I hate to break this party up, but I think the sanctum is going to act." Sazh cried. No sooner had the words left his lips the entire Vestige began to grumble. Stone was being bent upon itself and the distinct crack of falling walls filled the air.

"This isn't good" Vanille yelled as she struggled to keep her balance. Hope had already fallen to his knees and grasped onto Vanille's arm as he cowered. "What's going on?"

. "They're gonna blow these ruins to pieces. We need to move, and quickly." Sazh informed her as he took her hand.

"Why don't they just return it to Pulse?" Vanille asked.

"And give Pulse another weapon to fight Cocoon with? That's not the point of the Purge." Sazh snapped. "The fal'Cie in here is gonna have something to say about them blowing this place to bits"

As if the fal'Cie had heard Sazh's words, the Vestige ceased its shaking. A mark, the same that was upon Serah's arm pulsed from upon a wall and the entrance to the final chamber where the fal'Cie slept was revealed.

Snow's eyes lit up. "That's it! The fal'Cie! I'm gonna ask it to release Serah. Then I'm gonna ask it to get us out of here safely."

Sazh looked at Snow like he had lost whatever sanity he was still gripping so dearly onto. "You're gonna ask the fal'Cie for a favor? I got news for you man, fal'Cie don't do anything for humans. At least Pulse fal'Cie don't."

"It's worth asking" Snow retorted as he ran deeper into the chamber.

"We need to move" Lightning said finally. "Talking with the fal'Cie can buy us time from PSICOM at least." She followed Snow without even as much as a glance back at her crystalized sister.

Hope couldn't breathe. He had never really felt afraid of anything in his life before, but that was before he had lost his mother, was forced to dodge bullets and thrust himself into a personal family affair where he could potentially come in contact with the very thing that poisoned Cocoon and started this whole mess. He had calculated in whatever part of his brain that was still functioning rationally that someone who had a phobia felt exactly what he was feeling now.

Why he had continued to follow this group of seemingly mindless idiots deeper and deeper into the vestige he couldn't fathom. He should have stayed with Lebrau and Gadot. With the forces they had, weapons and willpower of those who wanted to survive it was likely that they would find a rabbit hole and escape back to the civilization of Cocoon. He could have been with them too, but he had let his anger over Snow get to him and Vanille was able to talk him into this mess. Why he didn't just turn and run was something Hope would be asking himself for the rest of his life… that is if he had much of his life left to live.

He followed Snow, Vanille, Serah's sister, and the chocobo man as they silently made their way down the final corridor that would either kill them, or buy them enough time to get out of the Vestige before it finally crumbled.

He was lost in his thoughts when he suddenly slammed into Vanille's back. The silly girl had stopped walking. He was about to ask her what was wrong when he realized that she ceased her movement because they stood in the same room as the fal'Cie.

"So" he whispered. "This is the fal'Cie." Before him stood what looked to be an ordinary machine in the dim lighting of the room. But upon closer look, it seemed as if each of the parts were moving…almost as if it was breathing.

"Serah is a Crystal now!" Snow yelled slicing through the silence. "You gave her a focus, she did it. You got what you wanted so let her go!

The fal'Cie remained silent. There was no movement. There was no communication. It just sat there, silently in the darkness observing the humans that stood before it. Snow fell to his knees. He pleaded with it, asked it multiple times to change her back. With each plea, his hope became replaced with anger. How could he have let this happen to his beloved Serah. If he had only been with her the day she wandered into the Vestige. If he had not let her be taken by the fal'Cie and held captive in this horrid prison. The regret and remorse filled his heart to the point where he thought of one last idea. "I'll do it! I'll be your precious l'Cie instead."

Lighting stood there, watching him break. She had enough. His tactic wasn't working and if she didn't step in and do some coercing, not only was Serah going to remain a crystalline statue, but they were all going to perish when the Sanctum finally did take the Vestige down. "Fine!" she screamed as she pulled out her sword. "You go on begging. Like this thing gives a damn what we want." Mustering up all her strength she swung the sword until it hit the metal body of the fal'Cie.

There was a blood curdling screech of metal scraping metal but the fal'Cie remained undamaged. Lighting grunted and swung again, and again. Each time with more force than the last, her anger was her only fuel. "Its this things fault!" she screamed "This thing is the reason why the purge was created and why so many people are dying. Its this thing's fault Serah is a statue outside that door! Serah asked us to save Cocoon…that means that this thing has to die!"

A deep growl could be heard as lights shimmered and illuminated the room. The metal body of the fal'Cie began to stir. It moved slowly, but unfurled itself from its sleeping position to reveal a horrid looking monster made of metal. Its arms were made of twisted turbines, while its body was a jumble of what looked to be electrical circuts with a crystal at its center. Vanille screamed as one of the arms swung across the room barely missing Snow.

"Come on now" Sazh yelled above the screeching of the metal. "You really think you can kill a fal'Cie?"

Lightning raised her sword "I'm doing this for Serah!"

Lighting was about to attack the fal'Cie when a blinding light exploded from the crystalline core. She couldn't see, but she could hear. The Vestige was being attacked again and this time she knew it wasn't going to last. She could hear Vanille and Hope scream in terror, but couldn't see them. It felt as if she were floating, floating through space, at time. Before her, the light from the fal'Cie's crystalline core dimmed and she could make out the outline of the monster before her. Her companions were floating like she was off in the distance.

"Where are we?" she asked. Part of her felt her body was still in the Vestige, but the other part felt her mind was in a completely different dimension and time. It was a dimension where the fal'Cie could exist, free from the bounds of their own world.

Before anyone could respond, strands of light shot from the crystal and snaked themselves around the humans that floated in this mysterious territory. Lightning found her arms being bound to her sides and her legs became immobile. The same was happening to the rest of her companions. The light ropes pulled them closer to the fal'Cie's body as it began to move even more fluidly now. Its arms moving like it was beckoning them to come closer.

Lighting tried to wriggle her way from the fal'Cie's grip but found it nearly impossible to command her own body to even move just a little. The light from the crystal pulsed brighter and brighter until another wave of energy shot from its core. It slammed directly into Lightning's chest, and this time she could feel the pain. White and hot, it burned through her, starting from her chest and moving throughout her body. The pain was too much and she found it too difficult to even take in a breath.

With as much energy as she could muster she turned her head and saw Snow and Sazh in the same predicament. Both their faces contorted in pain. Her head hurt, her body ached, and she didn't know how much longer she could go without oxygen. Just when it seemed like the pain was too much to bear…it stopped. With one more thrust the fal'Cie pushed them away letting them slip through the ropes of light and they were sent falling through an inky void not knowing when they would finally hit the ground.

Lighting tried to fight to keep her eyes open, but as she saw the light from the fal'Cie's crystal core grow farther and farther, her body collapsed and she gave into the slumber that was calling her.

In it's last attempt to save itself from total destruction the fal'Cie began to turn itself into crystal like Serah was just outside. As the fal'Cie fell into crystal stasis as it had been in for so long prior to these chain of events it sent out a shockwave of energy strong enough to break through the Sanctum's hold.

The vestige itself had turned to crystal along with the fal'Cie that slumbered within it and the structure plummeted to the lake that lay resting below the "Hanging Edge". Upon contact with the still waters, the lake too turned to a crystalline masterpiece, depicting a land frozen in time.


	6. Chapter 5: Branded

Chapter 5

Branded

Sazh felt pain. He felt as if he was floating in a void were no light would ever tread, he felt as of nothing mattered anymore. The only thing he knew for sure was that he could feel pain snaking through his body. His head was pounding, his back was arched and his arms and legs were contorted. He knew he was on the edge of consciousness and he begged the Maker that he would not wake up. Unfortunately for him, the Maker did not hear his prayer and Sazh found himself slowly opening his eyes to a land washed in blues, greens and purples.

He wondered for a second where he was and what had happened but the pain immediately took his attention away. With a gasp he straightened his arm and used it to slowly pivot himself to an upright position. Using his free hand he placed it to his forehead where a massive migraine was starting to form. He noticed from the groaning around him, the others were starting to stir as well and from the sound of it, they were in as much pain as he was.

Snow stood up and staggered to the edge of the ledge they were on shaking off any stiffness he may have felt. "Where are we? Is this for real?" he asked as he gazed out into the horizon. In the distance he could clearly see the Vestige they had been wandering through crystalized and stuck in the frozen wasteland.

"This must be Lake Bresha" Sazh said softly. He looked above them at green specks that flecked in the sky. "We came from up there in the Hanging Edge, but it doesn't explain how we got here…out of the vestige that is. And how did the lake turn to crystal?" When he realized no one was giving their input on the situation at hand he said with more strength. "Come' on help me out here. Did the fal'Cie do this?"

"How should I know?" Lighting snapped. It was clear she was analyzing the situation herself and could come up with no explanation other this being the fal'Cie's fault.

Vanille was on her knees next to Hope, her eyes wide with curiosity. "Were alive?" she asked herself. "How?" She may have been young and naïve but even she knew that a fall like what Sazh was referring to was impossible to survive.

"It was Serah!" Snow exclaimed. "It had to be. No one survives a fall that high without a miracle. It was Serah who saved us. Look at the lake, it's made of the same crystal that she is. It had to be her." He was about to justify his point further when he saw a lone Cie'th staggering behind Lightning. Without a word he pushed her out of the way and clenched his fist ready to punch. When is fist connected with the rotting flesh his hand grew immensely cold as is fist began to glow a soft cerulean color. Almost instantly, the Cie'th body turned to solid ice and shattered into fragments. Snow stood there dumbfounded, his mouth hanging open. "What did I just….."

"You used magic!" Hope yelled from where he remained curled up on the crystal floor. "You used the power of the l'Cie! That stupid fal'Cie cursed us. Don't you see, we're l'Cie now." He raised his wrist revealing a brand. It looked simple, A rectangle center with a few lines that branched off of it. Lighting noted however her sister's brand looked different, it was far more complex than what Hope had.

"Are we really l'Cie now?" Snow asked as he looked at the brand on is right arm.

"I'm afraid so" Sazh replied somberly as he pointed to the brand on his chest.

Lightning recalled the sharp pain that the fal'Cie had inflicted on them and how it had started from her chest and spread. With a casual peak she used a finger to pull the collar of her turtleneck sweater and saw the brand sitting above her bosom.

"What about you?" Snow asked looking to Vanille. "I didn't catch your name you know…you and the kid."

Vanille nodded "I'm branded too" she replied lifting her orange skirt just slightly to reveal a brand on her left leg. "And my name is Vanille by the way, and he's Hope" she said gesturing to Hope.

"Well as long as we're doing introductions…I'm Sazh and this feisty woman is Lightning. We met on the purge train."

"We don't have time for this!" Lighting snapped. "If the army find's out we're here, we're dead." And with that she began making her way down a path that didn't seem to treacherous to climb. The others immediately followed her. Lighting tried to ignore them but they continued to follow her anyway, so she stopped abruptly and said "If we don't know our focuses then how the hell are we supposed to complete them."

Vanille hesitated but said. "I….I think I've seen mine before."

Lightning looked at her. "Seen?"

"According to the legends, focuses aren't told to the l'Cie, but instead they are given to them in the state of dreams or visions." Sazh added as he climbed over a chunk of crystal.

"Do you remember much of what you saw?" Lighting asked Vanille

She contorted her face as she recalled the vision. "Not much of it, but I do remember seeing a huge, tall towering structure, and Coccon and…."

But she was cut off by Sazh who had finally managed to join them after climbing over the jumbles of crystal. "No way! You had the same vision? You saw Cocoon getting attacked by that tall thing?"

Vanille nodded and whispered. "Ragnarok." She recalled back to the legends of Ragnarok being the only being that the maker had created that could destroy Cocoon.

The look of shock on Lightning, Snow and Hope's faces was clear enough that they too had the same vision. "So from what we saw, how do we figure out our focus?" Lightning asked.

Vanille shifted nervously. "See, that's the thing, what we saw was the entire focus. In theory we're supposed to be the ones to interpret just how to go about making what we saw happen. If we can….we are granted eternal life…if not….well…you know."

"Ragnarok makes sense" Sazh added. "We are Pulse l'Cie now. Enemies of Cocoon. Our focus must have something to do with destroying it."

"Destroy it! No!" Snow yelled. "Our focus is to protect Cocoon. Serah made me promise I would protect Cocoon. That was her focus. And now our focus is to actually protect it. We can all do this together. We have to protect Cocoon!"

"From who exactly?" Vanille asked

Snow looked at her as if she were mental. "From Pulse of course! I'm going to find Serah. If we landed out here, she must have too. She can't be far." Without another word he raced down the pathway and out of sight.

Lightning sighed in frustration. "That bonehead never thinks before he acts. We'd best follow him and make sure he doesn't get himself killed."

As they trudged along the crystalline wasteland chasing after Snow, Sazh couldn't help but wonder just how somber the situation was. He kept asking himself "Why did kids' have to get dragged into this?" He repeatedly looked at Hope and Vanille. The two of the m looked to be around the ages of sixteen to nineteen. Certainly there was no reason for the Sanctum to drag innocent kids on the Purge train. Then there was Snow and Lightning, and as he had learned they were both twenty-one, newly made adults. They still had most of their lives to live out yet. None of this seemed fair.

He kept replaying it in his mind over and over. What were his mistakes? Following Lightning? Challenging a Pulse fal'Cie? Fighting for the one person left in the world he loved? No all of those reasons were perfectly acceptable to him. It was just a turn of bad luck that landed him in this position and he wanted to take a leaf out of Vanille's book and turn this into a positive thing. He decided he was going to use his new found magical abilities to finish what he went to the Vestige for in the first place.

Sazh was wrestling with these ideas while blindly following Lighting when he was pulled back to reality by Snow's voice. "Serah! Guys I found her!"

Instantly Lightning shifted into gear and ran toward Snow's voice. He was a way off but she could see him standing next to a chunk of crystal. A chunk of crystal that had a seemingly human shape. It really was Serah. By the time they had reached him he had already found a sharp piece of metal and was hacking away at the crystal that glued Serah's body to the frozen lake floor. Instinctively Vanille and Sazh grabbed metal shards and began to help him.

Lightning looked at her sister, frozen in time, for a long hard moment and with a sigh she whispered. "This is good-bye." She put her sword away and began to look for a way out of the frozen labyrinth.

"Good-bye?" Snow half yelled, half laughed. "What are you saying?"

"PSICOM will be here soon. Once they find us, we'll all be dead. You think Serah would want that?" Lightning retorted.

"We are l'Cie now. We can handle them. No one will die. I will protect us, Serah and Cocoon." Snow casually replied as he began to hack away at the crystal chunk once more.

Lightning could feel the anger boiling up within her again. How could this idiot talk like that. Serah was a frozen statue! She wasn't living, she wasn't breathing and she certainly couldn't hear them. Why couldn't he just give it up and leave her in peace so that she could finally rest. If they stayed there any longer PSICOM would arrive in masses and take them out. A few soilders they could handle, but with the fear of Pulse brewing on everyone's minds the Sanctum would send in the whole squad to eliminate them. Why couldn't he understand that. With her fist clenched she turned on him and swung.

Her fist connected with his jaw and she both felt and heard the sickening crack. "Does she look protected to you?" she screamed. When Snow stood up she punched harder and knocked him back down. "What can you possibly do? Look at her!" She was ready to punch him again but the grief for her sister flooded her heart and she collapsed to the ground doing anything it took to hold in the tears.

"You two are hopeless" Sazh whispered. "We want to help Serah too. But without proper tools, we could be digging for days. And with the army searching this area for any survivors, we're bound to be caught. I'd have to agree with Lightning, for now we pack up and move…but just for now."

"So you think I should just abandon Serah?" Snow yelled feeling more betrayed than angry.

"What about your focus?" Lightning questioned him. "What happened to banding together and saving Cocoon? Are you going to just drop that now and die here? You are nothing but talk." She stood up and began walking back down the pathway that lead them to where Serah's trapped body was.

"Lightning!" Snow growled, his fists clenched. "I will keep my promise. I will complete my focus and I will keep Serah safe."

Lightning couldn't help but snort. "Yeah…great job so far" without as much as a glance back.

Snow turned to his remaining companions. "Stay out of trouble. Go with her, get out of here. I'll stay here and protect her." Sazh and Vanille nodded and quietly went to chase after Lightning who was already out of sight.

Hope however hesitated. "Snow…I….you…"

"Save it for next time okay kiddo?" Snow said with a grin. "There will be a next time. Just get out of here while you can."

"But.."

"Its okay Hope. She may not seem it, but Lightning is a good person, she'll take care of you."

Hope nodded. "Yeah…okay" and he turned on his heel to catch up to Lightning, Sazh and Vanille pausing only for a moment to watch Snow pick up the metal shard he had been using before to continue to hack away at the woman he loved. Hope felt somewhat relieved that he didn't confront Snow but he also felt somewhat cowardly for the same reason. He could only hope that Snow was telling the truth about there being a "next time" because he was going to for sure confront him about his mother. Until then he could only wait and see what the future brought.

After hours of wandering through the crystalline like labyrinth, Lighting took pity on her companions and found a spot to sit down and rest for a bit. It was easy to see the exhaustion etched on their faces. They hadn't drank or eaten anything all day, and they had been going hours with no sleep.

"We can stay here for a little while, but we'll have to move soon." She announced.

"We can't just sit here and relax for a bit, maybe see if we can scrounge up some food" Sazh questioned.

"Sorry, but no. Take a peek over the side of that ledge and you'll understand why." Lightning responded.

Sazh, Vanille and Hope got down on their hands and knees and inched up to the edge of the cliff. With a gasp they knew exactly why they had to keep moving. PSICOM had arrived in full force. A full army ship had landed in a clearing among the crystalline cliffs. Hundreds of troops patrolled the area while hundreds more were sent out to search for any purge survivors and "finish the job".

"The must be searching for survivors…."Sazh stated. "I hope everyone made it out okay, but there's not going to be much more time. Once they make it to where we are, hiding isn't going to be an option, since most of this stuff is see-through"

Vanille frowned. "people really hate Pulse don't they?"

"Not hate" Sazh assured her. "Just fear it. Millions and millions of Cocoon citizens fear Pulse and they'll do anything to rid themselves of it."

"Even purge an entire town of innocent people just because they lived next to where a fal'Cie slept?" Vanille asked, tears forming at the corners of her eyes threatening to spill over.

"I know…its twisted, but the Sanctum fal'Cie did nothing to stop it. They are made to prevent human bad decision. If they let the Sanctum do something as twisted as that, then either the Sanctum fal'Cie are just as twisted, or they no longer care about humans anymore and they really do see us as tools."

"We don't have time!" Lightning cut in. "They're sweeping off the area. They're trying to trap the stragglers. If we don't move we'll be caught in their net. If we can get to their base undetected, maybe we can commandeer a travel ship and escape."

"And if we can't?" Hope asked.

"I'd rather not think about it"

_One day ago…._

Lightning looked at her sister in disbelief. Despite the table being stuffed with every one of Lighting's favorite foods that was carefully hand prepared by Serah earlier that day, the mood within the Farron house was tense. "So let me get this straight, you became a l'Cie and now you're marrying this idiot? You think I'm going to buy that?"

Serah averted her gaze to the floor, her shoulders slumped in defeat. Snow placed his hand around her and pulled her closer. "Now Lightning….listen to what she has to say. She really is a l'Cie. I saw her brand."

Lightning stood up from her chair. The food on the table remained untouched and was growing cold. "I don't want to hear it. Just remember…if you really are a l'Cie, I will have to be the one to deal with you." She stated hoping it would scare her sister enough to stop her from running around telling obnoxious lies like that. At least deep down, she hoped it was a lie.

Serah gasped. "Sis…."

"This is just ridiculous…worst birthday ever" Lightning retorted.

Serah trembled. She had hoped her sister would understand. She had hoped her sister would know the pain she was in, and she hoped Lightning would see that she truly did love Snow. It had taken all her courage to tell her sister those two things, in fact she wished upon the annual Bodhum fireworks the previous night that today would go well. Obviously her wish was not granted, but then again, the maker couldn't possibly gran everyone's wishes.

She let out a sob and ran from the room.

"Serah wait!" Snow called after her. He was about to chase after his future wife but thought it better to give her some time alone. Instead he turned on Lightning.

"Why won't you believe her?" Snow growled.

"Are you kidding" Lightning snorted as she crossed her arms. "Serah gets made a l'Cie and you pop the question? This whole thing is completely ridiculous." She wanted to scream as loud as she could, she wanted to punch this idiot man standing before her. She wanted to stop what was happening because it was ripping at the seams of everything Lightning had found stable in her life. Either way she was losing Serah. Whether it be to a fal'Cie or to Snow, she was going to lose her sister, the only family she had left.

"Stop it!" Snow yelled.

"No! You stop it" she screamed back louder as she slammed her hands on the table. "Get out of my house!"

There was a silence. Snow jumped at the sound of hostility in is soon to be sister in law's voice. After another awkward moment he sighed and said, "Fine, I'll protect her" and he turned on his heel and walked out of the room slamming the door behind him.

Lightning was left alone in the silence of the room with only her thoughts to keep her company. It was then that in her mind she started to plan out how she was going to save her sister. The only thing she could come up with was begging the fal'Cie that branded her to let her go. And so Lightning started to form a plan as to how she could maneuver around the army and save her sister.

"Lighting?" Vanille asked.

Lightning had been daydreaming, remembering how harsh she had been on Serah. She was lost in her memories of just what brought her and her companions in this predicament. It was only until Vanille repeatedly called her name while softly tapping her arm did she return back to reality.

"Oh, sorry" she whispered. "I was thinking about something."

"Did Serah ever tell you her focus?" Vanille wanted to know.

Lightning shook her head. "Not a word."

"Oh. I guess she didn't want to worry you."

"No, it's more like she didn't trust me." Lightning said finally.

"Guys" Hope interjected. "Where are we?"

The group looked around to see that they were standing in front of a pile of stone rubble. A massive pile of stone rubble. Lake Bresha, like the Hanging Edge used to be a very prosperous place to live, but after the war that cracked Cocoon's outer shell occurred thousands of years ago, the people refused to live anywhere along the edges. Entire cities used to float along the lake that lined the bottom of Cocoon. Now they were just empty graves.

"Looks like a temple of some sort" Sazh offered. "Long since abandoned. It might be a good place to hide from the army though. We can hide behind rock, at least that isn't see-through"

Lightning nodded. "For now. The army will be here soon if they aren't already." She began climbing the eroded stairway.

As it turned out, Lighting was correct. The army had already arrived and was busy doing a through sweep of the area. They hid behind piles of rubble as they observed the troops searching for any purge survivors. Every so often they'd report their findings back to their commander whom was probably located on the airship they had seen atop the cliffs.

"Do you think we can take em'?" Sazh questioned.

Lightning nodded. "This is only a small fraction of what they brought. If possible I'd like to sneak by undetected, but if we are spotted, this number shouldn't be any trouble for us l'Cie…that is until they call for back up."

"Hey!" Hope whispered in a hoarse voice. "Look over there! A travel ship. Do you think we can hijack it?"

"That's our ticket out of here" Lightning responded. "On my call, run to that thing as fast as you can. Take out any soldiers that come in your way. Hopefully by the time they notice us we'll already be in the ship and taking off. Ready….now!"

The four of them took off in different directions. Staying in a group meant a larger target to shoot and better chances of killing one of them. Unfortunately the soldiers were already on guard for any surviving purgee's that may try and escape.

"Halt!" one of the PSICOM troops yelled. His gun was raised as he aimed at Vanille. She was scurrying to hide behind another pile of rubble to avoid being shot, when she tripped over a stone and fell to her knees. "Don't move." The soldier said as he pointed the gun to the back of her head. The soldier surveyed his prey wondering how a girl like her could have survived a fall from the Hanging Edge, and that's when he saw it. The Pulse brand on her leg. "A l'Cie! He grabbed his communication unit and screamed. "WE HAVE L'CIE. REPEAT WE HAVE L'CIE"

Vanille used his hesitation as her escape and scurried to her feet and off toward the ship. Lightning and Sazh were already fighting a group of soldiers that had gathered around the entrance to the ship. Lightning was punching, kicking, and flinging every soldier that came at her across the room. Sazh was using his newfound l'Cie fire magic to fend off his share of soldiers. Hope was cowering in a corner behind a pile of stone unseen.

"Get in the ship!" Lightning yelled at Hope and Vanille. "Now! Get it started. We'll take care of these guys."

The two of them nodded and busted into the ship's door. "Do you know how to work this thing?' Vanille asked Hope as she raced to the control panel at the front. Through the window she could see Lighting and Sazh still fighting off soldiers. It wouldn't be long until the backup would arrive.

Hope looked at the complex array of switches. "Uh…I…I'm not sure. I've never flown one of these before."

Vanille was panic stricken. Any trace of her cheerful attitude had vanished. She began furiously pressing buttons. "One of these has to work."

"Move over carrot top" Sazh interjected. "I got this." He had left Lightning alone on the battle field to finish off the last of the soldiers. With the click of a few buttons and the flip of a switch the engine roared to life. "Lightning…lets go!" he yelled to her from the window.

Lightning nodded as she felt her foot connect with a soldier's abdomen. With grace she picked up her sword which had fallen to the floor mid combat and ran into the ship. "Go!" she screamed as she slammed the door shut behind her and buckled herself into a chair. Vanille and Hope were already buckled and anxiously awaiting takeoff.

The ship hovered a few moments and shot off into the distance. Sazh controlled the aircraft with ease. "How much time to we have?" he asked.

"Not much" Vanille replied. "They know we're l'Cie. One of them saw my brand and alerted the main ship. I wouldn't be surprised if they sent the whole army after us."

As if answering Vanille's statement, the sound of explosions filled the air and the ship rocked violently. "I'd say they know we took their ship" Sazh yelled as he fought to control it. Enemy ships flooded into his vision. They were trying to surround them.

Lightning unbuckled her seatbelt and lurched to the control panel taking control of the ships firing mechanisms. "You fly, I'll shoot" she instructed as she aimed the guns at one of the ships in front of them. They were flying over an abandoned floating city that loomed near the lake's edge. "We can lose them in the Peaks!" she said pointing to the area off the shore of Lake Bresha.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Sazh cried. "I can't fly through there."

"Then let me" Lightning snapped as she grasped ahold of the steering mechanism.

"No thank you" Sazh snapped. "You'll get us killed."

"If you don't manage to lose them, we'll die anyway."

The ship rocked more violently with each hit. The alarms within the ship were blaring. Hope sat cowering in his chair covering his eyes praying that it would end soon. Whether it be they escape, or they die, at least it would end.

With one final hit to the tail of the ship Sazh lost control. The ship refused to respond to his controls as it plummeted downward in the darkness below. "This is it, we're done" Sazh screamed. It was the last thing he remembered before he blacked out.

Snow was exhausted. His arms screamed in protest, as his hands became bruised and bled. The only thing keeping him alive at this point was his desire to free Serah. After hours of hacking away at the crystal he managed to free one of her feet from the crystal that glued her to the lake floor.

"Hang in there Serah!" was all he could repeat to himself over and over. It was the only thing that gave him a reason to keep smashing the metal shard into the solid rock. He had lost all perception of time. How long had it been since Lightning and the others left him? An hour? A day? All he knew was that he had to keep the rythmn he was in. Raise the weapon take a deep breath, and use all the force he could muster to smash it into the stone….then repeat. Over and over. Nothing mattered to him anymore. Either he would save Serah or he would die trying.

Just as he raised the metal shard again for another countless hit, a loud humming filled the air around him. "_So"_ Snow thought, "_The army has finally arrived"_.

Four travel ships whirred past him, their search lights pointing directly on him and Serah. Nevertheless he continued to work at what he was so focused on doing. It was only when the ships landed surrounding him did he toss aside the metal shard and face his opponents.

The PSICOM troops encircled Snow with their guns raised waiting for the signal to destroy this purge escapee. As they moved in closer, a radio came to life from who seemed to be the captain. "Sir, we have Pulse l'Cie down here."

"What?" The captain yelled in response. "The only l'Cie we were informed about was that Bodhum girl."

"We have four l'Cie retaliating right now!" Snow could hear Vanille's distinct scream over the intercom. "They are trying to commandeer a ship out of here.

"Well don't let them escape. Shoot them. My team will join you once we destroy the escapee we found and retrieve the l'Cie girl's crystalline body."

Snow clenched his fists. "Well then, if you want a l'Cie, then you'll have to fight one!" He pulled up his sleeve to reveal his brand.

The soldiers hesitated, and that was their mistake. Snow pounced on them punching and kicking whatever he came in contact with. He was running off of adrenaline, but even that wasn't enough to keep him going. He was exhausted from working so hard to free Serah. His punches became weaker, and his kicks were less accurate. He was slowly starting to lose this fight.

Then he felt it, a sharp pain on the back of his head. A soldier had whacked him in the head with his gun. It was enough to send Snow off balance as he fell to the ground.

"Pitiful l'Cie." The commander said as he raised his gun. "Rot in hell."

Snow wanted to give up. He wanted all of this to end, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Serah, sleeping peacefully encased in the crystal and he realized that he couldn't just give up and quit. He promised to protect Serah and Cocoon, so whatever that took to do it, he was going to do it until he drew his last breath.

His brand began to shimmer, pulsing a light blue color. It was dim at first, but grew darker and darker. The soldiers that had surrounded him backed up immediately as to not be touched by a cursed l'Cie or his magic.

"What's he doing?" a soldier asked from within the group.

"Don't touch him. Don't shoot him. You'll be cursed too." The commander yelled as he tried to back up faster.

The light around Snow grew larger and larger until it encompassed him. With a mere thought he sent the light blasting outward toward the PSICOM troops. Those who got caught up in the shockwave were blasted against the crystalline walls around them.

When the light cleared. Two women, twins, were standing in front of Snow. Their bodies seemingly made of ice and water. With a snap of their fingers soldiers turned to solid ice or were impaled by icicles made of crystal. A few soldiers tried to escape but they too were captured in another shockwave of l'Cie energy and killed on the spot.

Snow looked around in horror. "What's happening?"

The women turned to look at him. One was grinning and one was frowning. "We are the Shiva sisters" the smiling one said. "You're heart called upon us when it was in need the most."

The frowning sister continued. "We are a gift from the fal'Cie, given to l'Cie to help them accomplish their focus. If summoning us will not directly help you with your focus, then please do not call upon us."

"Can you help me save Serah?" Snow asked.

"We cannot." They replied in unison. "Saving that l'Cie means nothing to your focus. She does not need saving. She is a hero, she completed her focus, now let her rest in peace. She deserves it. Now, if you don't mind, we'll be taking our leave. Do not call upon us unless you really need it."

The two sisters melted into dust and the light on Snow's brand ceased glowing. Now the exhaustion had really set in. His body and mind were fatigued and he just wanted to rest for a bit. He collapsed on the ground surveying his brand which was causing his arm to tingle a bit. He would have curled up for a bit of a nap except he felt a presence.

All of the soldiers around him were dead, their blood staining the walls of the crystalized lake. Yet Snow could still feel a presence around him. It was almost as if after becoming a l'Cie, not only did he gain magical abilities but his senses seemed heightened in a way. He forced his eyes open and looked around for the presence. As it turned out the presence wanted to make itself known.

"So….the twin sisters?" It was a female voice with a thick accent Snow had never heard before. "I gotta hand it to you for being able to call them out…but I wouldn't gloat just yet."

Snow looked for the owner of the voice but could see nothing.

"There may come a time, when you might wish those soldiers ended it for you." A woman stepped out from behind a slab of crystal. She was tall, and dark skinned and tattooed. She wore a decorative blue sari that wrapped around her slender body. Her hair was bushy and slightly unkempt, but it was her eyes that Snow noticed first. They were an intense brown that reflected determination, strength and a twinge of pain. She carried a lance and placed the sharp edge against Snow's neck.

Soldiers filed out from behind crystal walls and surrounded him.

"So there are more of you, huh?" Snow said hoarsely.

The woman grinned cockily. "He's a l'Cie. Take him" she ordered to her men. They immediately dragged him to his feet and placed a gun at his back to make him walk.

"Get away from me" he yelled.

The woman looked him directly in the eye and whispered. "You want to keep breathing?" she didn't wait for his answer, "Then shut up, and come quietly."

Snow growled and sent spit fling in her face.

The woman's eyes immediately turned from intense, to angry. With a quick movement she shoved the side of her hand into Snow's neck and he felt the darkness that had been clouding the edges of his consciousness finally close in on him. The last thing he remembered seeing on the woman was a l'Cie brand on the upper portion of her right arm. It was different than his, but she was a l'Cie no doubt. Then he gave into the sleep that was calling him.


	7. Chapter 6: Splitting Paths

Chapter 6

Splitting path's

If there was one thing Hope was asking himself the most that day it was "How am I still alive?" He had survived the purge massacre, came in contact with an angry fal'Cie, was branded, and was chased by PSICOM troops at Lake Bresha. Now he could add 'Survived an airship crash' to the list. Either he was just not having a good day or his brushes with fate and living to tell the tale was one of the many mysterious abilities l'Cie had.

Now he lay in a patch of dirt in a dark wasteland, his body contorted into an odd position, as he wondered just what the hell was going on. It would take a miracle to survive a fall like the one they experienced, and yet here they were, alive, yet again. He had a vague idea where he was. They had crashed somewhere off the shore of Lake Bresha to the north, so that would mean they landed in a place known as the Vile Peaks, a landfill that was surprisingly stuffed with trash from both Cocoon and Pulse.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that they would have to get up and move soon. The army would be on their tail making sure that the crash really had killed them.

"You okay?" he heard Lightning ask him. She looked at him as he sat up.

He nodded. "yeah, bit of a headache but I'm fine."

"What about you two?" she nodded to Sazh and Vanille who sat up slowly.

"Could be better" Sazh replied. "But at least we're alive."

Vanille nodded.

A static noise filled the air. The control panel's holographic screen was flickering from within the pile of rubble that was once their ship. All around them small fires broke out from the electric that was seeping all over the place. Lightning took a good look at the screen and played with a few dials hoping they still worked. She quickly found out they did. A news broadcast filled the screen.

"Just moments ago the sanctum announced the successful conclusion of the purge along with the arrival of the Cocoon migrants to their new home on Pulse." An announcer said over the screen. "We have the Primarch Galenth Dysley ready to make a statement about it."

The screen changed to an elderly man wearing the white and gold robes of the sanctum appeared. "There is no denying the strain that the purge placed on us all, not just to the people of Bodhum. Given the tens of millions of lives at stake there was no other alternative. In all the centuries that have passed since the War of Transgression thousands of years ago, Cocoon has been spared Pulse aggressions and has prospered and it is essential that we maintain this peace and keep Pulse out of our land. That is the sanctums' goal and it was the goal of the Purge which I am happy to announce was a complete success. We can go on living our lives and those who were unfortunate enough to be touched by Pulse can go on living their lives in a better place for them." The Primarch announced.

Lightning gritted her teeth. "Those who were moved to Pulse can go on living their lives? They're all dead! We are gonna be running for the rest of our lives. Not just because we're l'Cie now….but because we know the truth about the purge."

"Say" Vanille interjected. "Who is that guy?"

Sazh, Hope and Lightning looked at their companion with concern. It was like she had no common sense. Sazh was the one to humor her. "That's Primarch Dysley, the head of the sanctum. The murderer-in-chief himself. The purge was his idea. Seriously what do they teach kids these days?"

Vanille didn't respond.

The image on the screen faded. Either the power source was cut off or the wires had finally burned in the rubble. Lightning sighed. "We need to keep moving. The army will send people down here to check to make sure we're dead."

"We can't take a break?" Sazh asked as he stretched his back.

"You can stay here if you want to die" Lightning responded.

Sazh sighed. "We aren't soldiers like you, we don't have the same stamina."

"Well then what do you propose we do?" Lightning asked. "Stick around here relaxing until they shoot us down."

Hope decided to step in "Where would we go? Anywhere we'd go, we'd have to eventually run from. They know we're l'Cie and they will do anything to get rid of us."

Lightning was silent but finally wispered. "I'm going to Eden."

"You're crazy" Sazh yelled. "Eden is the headquarters of the Sanctum. That's the last place you'd want to be."

"All the more reason why I want to go there and expose the purge to all of Cocoon. This has to stop. If the sanctum keeps this up, many more lives will perish."

"You're serious about this aren't you?" Sazh asked.

"Well, its die or turn Cie'th…I really don't see us accomplishing that focus we saw." Lightning responded.

"But you will never survive if you go marching directly into their beloved city. Its too dangerous. You're throwing you're life away. At least I'd rather die trying to survive rather than march into the Sanctum's seat of power with a death wish" Sazh retorted.

"After all that's happened, after seeing the Purge first hand for what it really was, after becoming a l'Cie myself and truly understanding that I have no more lost my humanity than any of the citizens in Cocoon…..I get the feeling that this is all the fault of the Sanctum fal'Cie Eden." She said referring to the fal'Cie that was named after Cocoon's capitol and watched over all of it's citizens and made the executive decisions of the Sanctum.

"What do you mean?" Hope questioned. "I thought Sanctum fal'Cie were the good guys, it's the fal'Cie from Pulse that are bent on destroying us."

Lightning grunted. "If you ask me, I have the sneaking suspicion that it was Eden's idea for the purge. The Sanctum just did as it was told and now they are doing everything in their power to cover it up. They're all the same, both Sanctum and Pulse fal'Cie. They are bent on destroying humanity and they're using us as slaves to do it for them."

"So what are you gonna do?" Sazh asked.

"Destroy it."

Hope gasped.

"Destroy Eden? By yourself?" Sazh said almost as if he was trying to work out how her crazy idea could be possible. "Say you pull it off, and you destroy Eden….it mean's lights out for Cocoon. Eden powers this entire place."

Lightning couldn't hide the grin playing at the edges of her lips.

"You want that?" he gasped. "You want to complete your focus and destroy all of Cocoon. You're playing right into the Pulse fal'Cie's hands."

Vanille who had been watching the entire spectacle from a quiet corner could see right through Lightning. She could see Lightning was hurting and was afraid of what was going to happen next. Lightning was a soldier in the defense corps, and yet she couldn't even defend her own sister. Now she was faced with a dilemma of being a l'Cie and hunted and she was afraid that she couldn't protect her new companions in the same dilemma. "You know," she piped up hoping to change the subject, "I've been thinking. Isn't wandering around together dangerous?"

Everyone was silent taking in the weight of her statement.

Lightning finally said, "You're right. We can't continue to travel like this. We're like one big moving target. We need to split up." She looked at the horror that registered on Hope and Vanille's faces. "It will give the army a bit of a challenge and force them to split up."

"Where would we go?" Sazh asked.

"Like I said, I'm going to Eden. If we really did land in the Vile Peaks, Eden is to the east of here, past the Gapra Whitewoods. I'm going there. You three can travel together then split up again if needed." Lightning responded.

"I'm going with you" Hope announced to Lightning.

Lightning raised an eyebrow. "I don't think so"

"Past the Whitewoods is Palumpolem. I live there." He said sternly.

Lightning nodded. "Fine. You'll come with me, but only as far as Palumpolem. Sazh and Vanille go west, through the Sunleth Waterscape and catch a ferry to Nautilus. Once you get there, blend in. We're at this stage of the cat and mouse game where hiding every time you see a soldier looks suspicious. The trick is to blend in. Look like you belong there and at all costs, keep your brands covered."

"We're gonna go to big cities to hide?" Sazh asked. "Aren't we putting a lot of people at risk?"

"Yes, but the army won't think to look in the cities. They'll be far too busy checking abandoned places like this, since they make good hiding spots for l'Cie on the run." Was her answer. "Once you get to the city don't attempt to contact each other. Keep an eye on the news and remember, no news is good news. Just because you don't hear anything doesn't mean it's bad, it means we haven't been discovered yet."

"Are…..are we ever gonna see each other again?" Vanille asked.

There was silence. Vanille knew Lightning was going to answer that never seeing each other again would keep them alive longer.

After another few awkward seconds Sazh sighed and said "How about this. We go to the cities and blend in like you said. Give the people and the sanctum some time to cool off and let the Pulse and l'Cie panic calm down. At the end of, say, three weeks we can grab some tools and we can all start making our way back to Lake Bresha to rescue Serah. Then we can decide what to do from there." He looked at Lightning. "Then you can rush off to Eden if you want…how's that?"

Lightning mulled over the idea and eventually nodded. "Fine. We'll do that instead, but don't think I will change my mind about Eden, I will go there once we get Serah." She looked at Hope. "C'mon, let's get a move on before the army starts to investigate this area."

Hope gave a quick hug to Vanille and said "See you soon?"

She nodded. "Yeah…I'm looking forward to it."

Lightning was moving fast through the rubble of the Vile Peaks. It was easy to tell that she was once a soldier. Her muscle was toned and her stamina was hard to keep up with. She could easily lift herself over piles of twisted metal and jump over wide chasms filled with garbage. Hope was starting to find that keeping up with her was difficult. He was beginning to regret deciding to go with Lightning.

Sure Palumpolem was his hometown, but what would he do once he got there? His mother was dead, and his father, well let's just say Hope and his father rarely spoke to one another. The two of them didn't have an ideal father-son relationship. But a thought kept playing in the back of his mind. Who was going to tell dad about what happened to mom? His father had known that his wife and son went to Bodhum for the annual fireworks festival, but he couldn't join them due to a last minute change in his work schedule as usual. Surely he had seen on the newscasts the reports on the fal'Cie sleeping in the Vestige and the report of the Purge. But was it right for him to continue to believe that his wife and son were living a new life on Pulse? Was it right for Hope to continue living on Cocoon on the run from PSICOM for the rest of his life while his father believed he was safe and sound with his mother? Or at least as safe and sound as he could be on what was supposedly hell on earth.

Hope was lost in his thoughts when he bumped into Lightning who had suddenly stopped.

"Hope, turn around." She stated.

"What?"

"This was a bad idea. Go with Sazh and Vanille. If you keep moving you should catch up with them in a few hours. I can't babysit you anymore." Was her simple answer.

"But I want to go home. I can fight too" he said as he pulled out the boomerang Vanille had given him for the first time since wandering the Vestige.

She looked at him eye's raised. "I don't think so. You can't keep up with me." She was about to badger him more about how she had never even seen him fight or use magic when two PSICOM ships sailed over their heads heading in the direction of the large piller of smoke that was rising in the distance; their crash site.

"We better get moving" Hope responded. "There will be soldiers patrolling here soon, once they discover there are no l'Cie bodies burning in that flame, they will start to comb this area thoroughly searching for us."

Lightning knew he was right. There was no way she'd let him backtrack to Sazh and Vanille now that PSICOM had arrived. She couldn't help but be worried about Sazh and Vanille at the thought. Sazh was not a spring chicken and Vanille, that silly girl didn't look like a fighter.

The worry on her face must have shown because Hope said "Lightning, are you worried about the others? Don't be, Sazh was pretty tough when we stole that ship, and Vanille, she protected me in the Vestige."

Lightning looked him in the eye and said "This is your last chance, you can leave me now and catch up with the others. With me, it will be fight after fight, not just because I plan on knocking down Eden's front door, but because I was a member of the defense corps. The Sanctum knows who I am and have all of my information. I am going to have a hard time blending in, in the cities."

Hope looked back at her with as much intensity. "I know that, but I need to be stronger. There's something that I promised I'd live long enough to do." His mind was flashing back to Snow letting his mother's hand go as she plummeted into the darkness of Lake Bresha below.

Lightning surveyed the young boy before her, and though he was scrawny and trembled she could see the potential within him. In some way, he was showing her the same courage that Serah had showed when she announced that she was made a l'Cie, and this time Lighting wasn't going to answer the wrong way.

"Lightning?" Hope asked as he shifted on his feet unsure of what her silence meant.

She turned her back on him and continued down the path. "Call me Light" she cried. "and hurry up, I won't wait for you."

Hope grinned and followed her.

Lightning led the two of them down a path filled with as much junk as she could find. She figured that with it being as dark as it was, it would be hard to spot them if they blended in with the piles of rotting garbage and rusted metal. And so, they traveled like that for hours through the darkness trying to stay alive.

As it turns out, the sanctum was being smart about their search for the missing l'Cie. Rather than wait to send troops looking for them till after it was confirmed whether they died in the crash or not, the Sanctum sent the troops out to search the far ends of the Vile Peaks in case by a small chance the cursed l'Cie did survive and would try to escape.

The two of them crouched behind what seemed to be a rusty piece of an old warship left behind by the War of Transgression near where the troops made camp and listened to see if she could hear any of their tactical plans.

"Any sign of the l'Cie" a soldier asked.

"None so far, but no I just got word that no bodies were found at the crash site. Our inside Intel was correct. Imagine surviving a fall like that, can l'Cie really be destroyed?" Was the response.

"So the Intel was correct then, they split up?" the first soldier asked.

"Yeah. Those l'Cie are smart, but we will always be on their tail. The B group is going after the others."

Lightning let out a soft sigh of relief knowing that Sazh and Vanille wherever they may be, hadn't been caught yet but it was clear that troops were on their tail's too. "Listen, we should wait until most of the soldiers clear out of here to go look for us, then we'll take down whomever remains." Lightning whispered.

But Hope wasn't listening. He was looking intently at what it was exactly they were hiding behind. At first he thought it was part of an old warship, but the closer he looked at it the more he realized it was something different. "Is this a Pulse weapon?" he asked trying to keep his voice down as much as he could.

Lightning shrugged as a look of irritation came over her face. "How should I know?"

"What if it still works?" Hope was becoming more and more intrigued. He had always been into learning how things worked. When, at one point in his life, he and his father got along, the two of them would spend afternoons taking things apart and putting them back together. As he looked at the massive weapon in front of him he started to realize that, while he had never seen a weapon like this before, its mechanics where highly similar to what he was used to working with.

Lightning elbowed him. "Just leave it. You'll get us spotted." But Hope had already climbed up to the top of the weapon and began twisting and tampering with the wires and gears. Lightning knew it was only a matter of time before he was spotted even though he was trying his best to stay as low as possible.

"Pulse l'Cie!" a soldier screamed from the ground. Immediately the soldiers picked up their weapons and began firing at Hope. He ducked and cringed as he heard the bullets clink off the metal.

"Just a little more…" he said.

Lightning kept her place from behind the machine. After all, she wasn't the one that was spotted. The soldiers were oblivious to her presence, and the longer it stayed that way the better. There would be no point in rushing out to defend Hope against over fifty armed troops shooting at point blank range. All she could do now is wish that Hope knew what he was doing and start the damn machine.

As if someone answered her plea, the turbines located on the lower portion of the weapon whirred to life. Lightning jumped out of the way so she wouldn't be caught and crushed in the twisting turbines. "Hey! It still works!" Hope yelled as the Machine picked itself up off the ground. It was shaped like a tank, only it had legs of its own to move with and two enormous Gatling guns that acted as arms on each side. Hope was sitting atop the contraption working the control board.

The PSICOM troops hesitated and took a few steps back. The weapon when standing was enormous. Lightning used their hesitation as an opening to move. She quickly climbed up the side of the machine and sat behind Hope who was still getting the hang of controlling the thing. A series of loud shots filled the air and she wasn't sure who was firing at who, but when she saw the blood splattered on the ground below she knew Hope discovered how to fire back.

Involuntarily she wrapped her arms around his waist and said "Move!"

Hope obliged as he placed his foot on the gas pedal and the weapon moved forward. The metal from the front and the back of the weapon was proving to make a very decent shield against the fire that was opened on them, but Lightning wasn't so sure about the sides. Using her l'Cie magic she controlled lightning to strike any soldier who tried to fire at them from the sides.

Hope was trembling but it was more from the rush of adrenaline he was feeling, than anything else. He continued to stay focused and plow through the waves of troops. Lightning on the other hand remembered feeling terrified at one point, and it startled her more than anything else. She rarely felt terrified and she rarely had to rely on someone else to get her out of a mess.

Eventually the waves of troops got weaker and weaker as Hope picked off each and every soldier that was trying to kill them.

Lightning let out a sigh of relief. "That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen." She scolded.

Hope looked at her. "What were we supposed to do, wait around forever until most of them left? I doubt that would have happened. Whomever is their inside Intel, they are good. They knew exactly what we are doing. You heard them. Somehow they knew that we split up."

That may have been one of the most troubling things Lightning had heard all day. Not that her sister was gone, not that she herself had been made a l'Cie, but the fact that the Sanctum was still on their tails, and they knew that they split up. Just who was this Intel that the soldiers were talking about? Hope was right. If they knew that Lightning and Hope split from Sazh and Vanille only hours after they had made the decision, they would have without a doubt known sooner or later that the two of them were hiding just feet away from their camp.

Lightning mulled over this wondering why she hadn't heard of any "Inside Intel" in her days as a Soldier but dropped the thought when she saw the cliff ahead. "Hope, slow this thing down. We'll go over the cliff if you don't." she cried.

"I'm trying" he responded, panic rising in his voice.

They didn't stop, if anything they accelerated.

"Hope!" Lightning yelled, wishing that yelling at him would make the machine slow down.

"I said I'm trying!" he snapped. "I don't know how to stop this thing."

"Take your foot off the gas!"

"I did! It's still moving"

The machine moved quicker as it edged closer to the cliff. Lightning made up her mind. She grabbed Hope, threw him over her shoulder and jumped off the machine. Just as they tumbled and hit the stone floor the weapon fell over the side of the cliff into a dark abyss.

The two of them laid there gasping for air when Lightning sat up suddenly. "This isn't working."

"What?" Hope asked as he pulled himself to his feet.

"I mean, you're a liability. I can't do this." Lightning responded as she got up and began to walk toward a bridge in the distance that spanned the chasm that the Pulse weapon plummeted into. "You'll just slow me down. I'm easy for PSICOM to recognize. I need to constantly move." Lightning was at her breaking point all day, ever since she boarded the Purge train earlier that morning, but now, the stress of having to babysit Hope along with keep the two of them alive was starting to make her lose her mentality.

"You can't" Hope pleaded. He knew that without her help, her companionship and her knowledge of how the army worked, there was no way he could survive.

"I'm sorry but I can't even…." She began but felt a piercing sharp pain in her chest. It was the same kind of pain she felt when the fal'Cie in the Vestige branded her. It was white hot and seared through her starting from her brand and expanded outward. She placed her hand over her chest and forced her lungs to take in air as she bit back a scream. Her brand began to glow a soft magenta color.

Hope wasn't paying attention to his companion, he was trying to find a way to convince her yet again to let him continue following her, at least until Palumpolem. "You can't just leave me here. I'd never survive on my own."

"Enough!" Lightning screamed. She was forbidding tears from flooding her eyes as she swayed on the spot. "The whole world is against us. I can't even keep myself alive let alone some helpless kid."

Hope was about to respond when Lightning let out a cry and fell to her knees. He saw the light pulsing from her brand and the pain etched on her face. "Light…what's wrong?"

The light around grew brighter until it engulfed her entire body. Hope watched in horror as he heard his friend cry out in pain within the blinding light but he couldn't bring himself to get closer to her.

Just as soon as the pain started, it vanished along with the light that blinded her. Standing before her was a massive soldier wearing titanium armor that glimmered in the moonlight. In its hand was a lance that towered over the soldier itself. It's intimidating yellow eyes peered at Lightning from behind it's helmet. Then it turned, and saw Hope trembling in fear. In a quick movement it hurdled toward Hope, lance raised ready to strike.

Lightning's body was moving before her brain could even register what she was doing. Instinctively her hand slipped to her sword's sheath and she pulled it out watching as it unfolded from its gun form into it sword form. She placed herself in front of hope and raised her sword to meet the lance's tip. There was a clash of metal, and Lightning felt herself go flying through the air.

She landed on her back and felt the air get knocked out of her lungs. She sat up to see that the giant soldier was advancing on Hope again who this time was readying himself to fight. Lighting again felt her body move before her brain actually decided what to do. She was back in front of Hope sword raised again. This time she was knocked to the side like a ragdoll. Her body skid across the stone ground stopping dangerously close to the edge of the chasm. Her sword had been knocked from her hands and lay lifeless feet away. She struggled to get up but her arms protested and she was fairly sure a rib or two was broken.

She whimpered in pain as she struggled to get up. The soldier was advancing on Hope again. Lightning knew there was no possible way for her to get up, grab her weapon and move quick enough to place herself between the soldier and Hope and so she screamed at the top of her lungs "STOP!"

She had figured since this thing was produced by the light of her brand, she could make this end. The soldier ceased its movement toward Hope and looked at her. "Why him?" she asked. "You came from my brand, so why him?"

The soldier advanced on her, but she knew she couldn't move. Her legs were covered in bruises and cuts, her arms felt as if they were on fire, and the headache that pounded in her head was threatening to knock the consciousness from her, but worst of all was the pain in her ribcage. She had broken a few ribs and was probably bleeding internally. She waited for the soldier to raise its lance and strike her, but the blow never came.

Instead she heard it say. "I am the Eidolon Odin. It was you l'Cie who called me into this reality and that is why I came."

"Even so," she struggled to say as she clenched her side. "Why attack him. If I called you, then attack me."

Odin shook his head and merely said. "You were searching for a reason to continue traveling with this boy. You doubted him every step of the way, you feared that he would slow you down and so you wanted to rid yourself of him yet part of your mind wanted to find a reason to make you see that keeping him around was not a liability. That part of your mind called out to me and I made you see just how much you were willing to risk to protect him. That should be reason enough to see that you do want to keep traveling with him."

Lightning looked at Hope who had collapsed to his hands and knees. "So I called you?"

Odin nodded. "I am the Eidolon that was granted to you, l'Cie. I am here to aid you in your quest to complete your focus. I am not to intervene at any other point in your quest unless it pertains to your foucs."

"And my dilemma proved to be of importance to my focus" Lightning asked through clenched teeth. The pain was becoming too much

"It does." Odin replied. "You must focus on your task. Do not worry yourself over trivial things like who you should travel with. Worry about your focus. Now that I have forced you to see what it is you really want, you can continue on your quest and fulfill your focus l'Cie."

Before Lightning could respond Odin vanished in bright light. Instead of pain in her chest, however she felt a soft warm tingling feeling on her ribs. Hope had made his way over to where lightning was. A soft green glow emitted from his fingertips when he touched her.

"Healing" was all he could say.

"Excuse me."

"Healing magic" he repeated. "It's the magic the fal'Cie gave me. I can heal."

Lightning nodded as she felt waves of relief wash over her. Hope worked carefully on each wound until all Lightning had bruised left was her pride. "I…..I'm sorry" she whispered. "I don't want to ditch you here. I never did. I can see that now."

Hope chuckled. "No, it's okay. Thanks for saving me. You can pay me back by staying with me until we reach Palumpolem."

Lightning nodded. "Deal. The Gapra Whitewoods are probably only a mile or so across the bridge, but I think we deserve a bit of a rest huh?"

The two of them wandered to a rather cluttered location on the other side of the bridge and made camp. Lightning figured that they would do shifts through the night to keep an eye out to see if PSICOM had tracked them again. After the light spectacle Odin put on for his arrival, it wouldn't be long before the army came searching the area. She told Hope to get some sleep and that she would take first shift. At some point through the night Hope mumbled in his sleep "Love you mom" thinking that he was referring to you she chucked and whispered. "not by a long shot." She knew this was going to be a long night.


	8. Chapter 7: Can't Catch a Break

Chapter 7

Can't catch a break.

Vanille saw the ships first. From what she could see, there were only two of them, and they continued to circle above the air around where the crash site was, which to them by now was miles off. She grabbed Sazh's jacket sleeve. "Sazh! Look!"

Sazh surveyed the area and groaned. "And I was hoping to get a break. We need to keep moving."

"Awww," Vanille moaned. "I'm so tired. I feel like all I've done is run for my life from the second I stepped off the Purge Train."

Sazh placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know, I'm exhausted too, but once those soldiers find a lack of four crispy l'Cie bodies in that rubble they'll expand their search outward. We don't want to get caught in their net."

"I know…but" Vanille trailed off as she spotted a bright magenta pillar of light off in the distance and the twinkling of more PSICOM ships off in the eastern end of the Vile Peaks. "I'm worried….about Lightning and Hope. They were traveling in the direction all the ships are."

"Lightning can take care of herself…and the kid too…I wouldn't worry. She made our escape easy. There's no soldiers here, they must have caught PSICOM's attention. I guess the army hasn't figured out we split up yet." Sazh replied. "I just hope they slip away undetected."

"Well it's like Lightning said, no news is good news."

Sazh nodded. "All of Cocoon is in the grip of a full blown Pulse phobia now. I'm sure the Sanctum is trying to cover up our existence as l'Cie and are trying to quietly eliminate us without the general population even knowing."

"What do you mean?" Vanille asked.

"The Sanctum announced that the Purge was successful, when in fact it wasn't, because four new l'Cie were created. If word got out that the Sanctum failed at purging everyone and in their mistake new l'Cie arose, the people would lose their faith in the Sanctum." Sazh explained. "That's why PSICOM is trying so desperately to rid themselves of us. That's why Lightning said to hide in cities. Sure the army knows what we look like, but civilians in the cities don't even know about our existence."

Vanille sighed. "But do the people even know what it is they fear? It's always the same, people are afraid of Pulse and l'Cie because they were told to be afraid."

"Kiddo, people are afraid of what they don't understand and what they don't want to learn more about. You know Vanille, you're awfully inquisitive about the relationship of Cocoon and Pulse. You don't even seem bothered by the fact that you were made a l'Cie."

"I just want to find some logic behind all of this." Vanille replied. "I'm not afraid or ashamed that I was made a l'Cie, nor am I afraid of Pulse or the sanctum for that matter. I just want to know why so many people are willing to believe what a group of people said is true without really experiencing it for themselves."

Sazh chuckled. "You're young. I envy that. I think the fear gets worse as you get older. If it were up to me, I'd say the world would be better off eliminating all Pulse l'Cie.

Vanille looked at him sharply. There was pain in her eyes. Her own companion just stated that the world would be better off if they had just died the minute they became l'Cie.

Sazh saw her pain and quickly corrected himself. "I mean….well….most Pulse l'Cie."

"Gee, thanks" she replied with a touch of venom in her voice. Without warning she picked up her speed and began making her way through the rubble on her own leaving Sazh to try and chase after her.

"Vanille!" Sazh called trying to keep her in his sight. "I didn't mean it like that. Vanille slow down." She didn't respond and this was uncharacteristic of her. From what he saw of her, she was an optimistic child who held on to any thread of hope she could grasp. It was almost as if his words had cut those threads just before her eyes.

He was trying to keep up with her but, his body was beginning to protest. He was in his upper thirties, and activities like running, jogging and climbing were once possible maybe fifteen or so years ago, but now his bones refused to move as nimbly.

"_Kweh, kweh" _the trilling sound brought Sazh's attention to his hair_._

"Chocobo?" Sazh said as his head tilted upward. "I forgot you were there. I didn't realize you were still with me."

"Kweh?" it replied as it flew out of his hair into Sazh's outstretched hand. Its head cocked slightly.

"Chocobo, why are you still here? Go on, fly away to freedom. I'm a Pulse l'Cie now, an enemy of Cocoon."

"Kweh!" it flew back into his hair and began singing happily.

Sazh sighed. "Fine, do what you want." He was about to go and look for Vanille when she called out to him first.

"Sazh! Come look"

He rushed as fast as he could over piles of rubble to where he saw Vanille's slender figure standing at the edge of a cliff. Her chipper mood was back and all traces of resentment melted and vanished.

"Look, we've reached the end of the Vile Peaks" she exclaimed, her finger pointed out over the cliff to a large expanse of dense green trees.

Sazh smiled. "That's the Sunleth Waterscape, a marshy wetland that provides a habitat for most of Cocoons wildlife. All we have to do is cross it and I believe there's a travel center where we can catch a ferry to Nautilis."

Vanille looked at him with pleading in her eyes. "Can we take a break, please?"

Sazh looked around. "We gotta sleep sometime I suppose, and since no soldiers have been trailing us, how about here. We'll stay the night and continue in the morning."

Vanille let out a sigh of relief as she pulled off her bearskin skirt and neatly laid it on the ground near a large rock. Sazh went to join her but she abruptly held out her hand. "Hold on" she said softly. She grabbed a stick that was lying in the dirt and drew a line in the ground.

"What are you doing?"

"Do not cross this line, understood?"

Sazh sighed. "Grow up, will you?"

She grinned and plopped down on her makeshift blanket using her arm as a pillow. "Good night" It was a matter of seconds before she was fast asleep.

Sazh took a seat on the dirt next to Vanille but was careful not to cross her line. He lay on his back gazing at the stars keeping watch for any PSICOM ships that may be passing over. One hour of a clear sky turned in two and Sazh felt himself drifting off to sleep. It was only until Vanille had begun crying in her sleep that Sazh felt himself jostled awake at some point in the night. Not only that, but she had rolled across her line and off her blanket until her back was pressed against Sazh's own.

"Still just a kid." Sazh sighed. He reached over Vanille's body and grabbed her bearskin skirt and threw it over her before going back to sleep.

The Gapra Whitewoods sectioned off the darkness of the Vile Peaks from the civilization of the bustling residential city of Palumpolem. It's primary purpose was for research in discovering the origins of many plants that were indigenous to the area and the upbringing of experimental creatures the Sanctum had been raising for bio weaponry. Lightning had never personally been to the Whitewoods, but many of her colleagues had told her about it, so she had a vague idea of how the place looked and worked.

Hope was on the second watch that night while Lightning slept, and though they weren't spotted by the army they had been quite close to being discovered multiple times. As soon as the light from the Sanctum fal'Cie Phoenix could be seen in the horizon Hope shook Lightning awake in hopes to retreat from the Peaks as quickly as possible. The PSICOM troops scoured the area throughout the night and with no luck turned around to look in a different direction.

Using that opportunity the two of them made their way quickly through the remainder of the Vile Peaks to a large metal wall fifty feet in height to what would be the entrance to the Gapra Whitewoods. Lightning quickly took out a Sanctum Defense Corps ID card and slid it through a slot in the wall. The light above the slot changed from red to green as a panel in the wall slid open to reveal a glimmering scene before them.

"Lets go!" Lightning called. "They'll be on our tail again soon. I used the ID card, and while the bio-researchers of the sanctum probably haven't been told of the l'Cie scare yet, the army can see a record of everyone who has slid an ID card through here if they want."

"Then why did you do that?" Hope questioned.

"Because climbing the wall would have been stupid. Not only would it leave us completely exposed, there is many motion detectors atop that wall that would alert both the bio researchers and the army of intruders. At least with the ID card we got a little extra time." She explained as she walked through the gate.

Hope felt like he walked into another crystalized paradise. The Whitewoods did indeed look like a forest, except the trunks of the trees had large chunks of crystal attached and the leaves were made entirely of a thin slab of crystal. It was all highly reminiscent of Lake Bresha, except Bresha's crystallization was caused by a fal'Cie whereas the Whitewoods was entirely natural. Soft warm winds rustled the leaves causing them to clank against one another making a sound of what seemed to be wind chimes.

Hope went to touch a low hanging branch of the crystal leaves when Lightning said "I wouldn't touch that. The crystal is so thin that it acts as a razor. Those will cut you up in an instant."

"Amazing" Hope whispered. He couldn't believe that he had been living next to a wondrous sight like this all his life and didn't even know about it. Sure he had heard about it in school and how most of the medicines created had derived from the plants in the whitewoods, but he never figured something like this could be so breathtaking. "Have you ever been here before?"

Lightning shook her head. "No. My job was to keep Bodhum safe. I've had friends though, who have don work here, so I know a little bit about it. Why? Are you scared?"

Hope shook his head. "Not really, Its kinda quiet here, and if we need to fight off more soldiers, then that's what we'll do."

Lightning smiled at him. "Good answer." She rifled around in one of her pockets and produced a small pocket knife that was folded neatly in its sheath. "Here."

"What's that?"

"Something to defend yourself. I'm sure it will help you more than throwing that boomerang around." She replied simply as he took it from her hand. "I'll want it back you know."

"Lightning" he called as she turned and continued to walk through the woods.

"I said call me Light."

He struggled to keep up with her. "Right, Light, do you think Snow is still alive?"

Lightning stopped walking and looked at him. "Why do you want to know that?" When he didn't respond she shrugged. "Unfortunately Snow is too stubborn to die. Either he's still out there hacking away at my sister, or PSICOM got him. That's his problem. He's arrogant and thinks everyone is his pal. I never liked him much. My sister has weird taste in boyfriends."

"He's the head of some terrorist group right?"

Lightning snorted. "Terrorist group? I don't think so. They're a gang of juvenile kids. Call themselves NORA I think."

"Where'd they get the name NORA from?" Hope questioned as he dodged a low hanging tree branch.

Lightning crossed her arms, Irritation starting to set in. Not from Hopes questions however, but more from having to recall that idiot and his group of immature friends. "Stupid acronym. Stands for No Obligations Rules or Authority. Bunch of crap if you ask me." She was going to continue her rant when she held out her arm in front of Hope to prevent him from moving further.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"This is the research wing." Lightning gestured. "There will be all kids of wild monsters and beasts roaming around here, and trust me, they aren't going to be friendly."

"What do you mean?"

"The research group here takes tame and civil animals and does experiments on them to turn them into bio weapons. Bio weapons that are made for war…no, that are made to hunt l'Cie."

Hope didn't respond. He just followed her, head hung as he mindlessly pulled out the blade of the pocket knife only to sheath it again.

"Okay" Lightning said with a sigh as they moved carefully through the bioweapon research area. "What's eating you? I can tell you're hung up on something. You've been thinking about it for a while. It's been compromising your focus in battle. Is it the l'Cie thing?"

Hope remained silent.

"It's Snow isn't it?" she asked as Hope immediately turned his head. "What happened with him? She pressed on.

He hesitated but softly said "My mother was killed because of him. He let her go just so he could save himself." Anger was starting to boil within him again. All he could feel was the urge to find Snow, take the knife Lightning had given him and avenge his dead mother. "That's why I followed you. I promised I'd live long enough to avenge Mom. Snow dragged us all into this, and for that he has to pay."

Lightning didn't necessarily disagree with Hope, especially about the part that Snow dragged them into this l'Cie mess, but to make him pay? That seemed a bit harsh. When after all Snow was doing everything he could do to save Serah. She was about to protest on Snow's behalf when a group of Sanctum Security bikes flew by overhead.

"They found us already?" Hope exclaimed. "Did we trip an alarm?"

"No" Lightning retorted. "PSICOM has just found out that I used my ID to get in here. We need to move. If we can continue to stay one step ahead of them until we get to Palumpolem we'll be okay. Hope, you said you lived in Palumpolem?"

Hope nodded.

"Do you think we could stay at your house and hide there until the Sanctum clears out and searches other places?"

"Well….I do have a house, but it's just that I really don't get along with my father and I highly doubt that he's going to want l'Cie in his house. I'm afraid he'll just kick us out or report us to the sanctum or something."

"So let me get this straight" Lightning said as she jogged as fast as she could through the paths of the Whitewoods. "You don't want to visit your father and at least let him know that you're alive."

"I said its complicated." Hope snapped. "I will blend in just fine on my own. I don't need to go hiding in my father's house. He probably doesn't even care that Mom and I are gone." But Hope knew he was lying to himself. He knew that his father deeply loved his mother and he had the right to know what had really happened during the Purge. Maybe in telling his father that, he wouldn't call the Sanctum on them and have them executed for being l'Cie.

"I wish I had parents I could talk to" was all Lightning replied. "Hell, I wish I had any family to talk to, but hey…if you don't want to see your father, that's your choice. Keep up with me. We're just about out of here."

Hope was so busy being lost in his thoughts of his mother and father and fighting off the rising anger toward Snow that he didn't even realize they had cleared the Whitewoods and stood on the edge of a vast sea. Perched along the Cliffside in the distance was the bustling city of Palumpolem. Hope was home, and yet he couldn't drop the urge to turn back around and run as far away as he could.

Sazh and Vanille began making their way through the Sunleth Waterscape as soon as Phoenix's light touched the barren grounds of the Vile Peaks. They had a relatively peaceful night aside from the fact that they were sleeping on rock. They continued their journey into the wetlands of the Waterscape where Vanille gaped at all of the foliage that grew around them.

"Wow, It's so green and nature-y here" she exclaimed as she took in a deep breath of the fresh air.

"You've never been here?"

Vanille shook her head. "No."

"I used to transport ships filled with school kids here all the time." Sazh replied. "That was my job, I engineered ships. Built them, fixed them, drove them….I did a lot of field trips for the schools. Mostly from big cities like Palumpolem and Eden."

"Ah I see…" Vanille exclaimed. She was about to continue when she grabbed Sazh by the arm and yelled. "Hide."

Sazh felt himself get pulled behind a large green shrub just as army ships soared over them. The ships didn't slow down or scour the area though, they kept traveling back in the direction that Sazh and Vanille came from.

"The only city in that direction would be Palumpolem" Sazh whispered to her.

"Isn't that where…."

"Yeah…but they'll be fine. If they are still searching, it probably means they haven't been spotted yet." Sazh replied.

"What do we do?" Vanille pleaded.

"Nothing we can do kiddo. If we turn around we'll be going the same place they are. Lighting is a soldier, so the army knows what she looks like. She's a big target."

The two of them continued through the wetlands in silence. Sazh was easily brooding over something, something he'd been keeping held in for a long time. Vanille was trying to justify in her mind that running the opposite way and getting out of this easy was okay. She wanted to rid herself of the guilt that had been slowly eating at her, but the further they traveled the worse she felt. Lighting and Hope were taking the brute force of the army while she and Sazh were easily slipping through the cracks in their net. Once they got into a highly populated area where civilians had no idea that l'Cie were around it would probably be near impossible for the army to catch them without revealing their failure during the Purge. Cocoon was a big place populated with tens of millions of people after all.

As Vanille ran over all the reasons why she should continue running she realized she had no idea how Sazh got roped into this mess at all. Sure she knew her reasons, and Hope's too. Even Snow and Lightning's motives were easy to figure out. The only person she had yet to figure out was Sazh.

"Hey Sazh?"

"Yeah" he said as the found a dry patch of grass to sit on. Since the army wasn't tailing them, they could take more breaks and probably move at a much slower pace than Lightning and Hope had to.

"Tell me about yourself" she said in her chipper voice.

"What?"

"Any family?"

Sazh was silent for a moment but smiled at her. "I have a little boy."

Vanille's eyes were wide and a large smile grew on her face. So Sazh did have something worth fighting for. She had been afraid that he had no family and no motive to stay alive, thus he didn't care whether he lived or died, completed his focus or turned Cie'th. "So you're married?" she asked.

"I was…yeah. My wife died a while ago…it's just been me and my boy."

"Well then, we gotta get you home. Your son needs you" Vanille announced. "Where do you live?"

Sazh ignored her question. "It's too late."

"Why? Is it because you're a l'Cie now?" She asked. "Nevertheless, l'Cie or not, you're a father."

Sazh couldn't hide a smile playing on the corners of his mouth as he said "You're right."

"So, what's his name?"

"Dajh." He yawned

"You look tired," she stated. "Didn't you sleep last night?"

"Off and on" he replied. "I had to keep an eye out for army ships that may be searching the area. I think I'm gonna lie down here and take a rest for a bit. Do you mind keeping watch of the area this time?"

She shook her head. "Sweet dreams pops." She took a seat on the grassy floor next to him and held out her hands for the chocobo chick that was fluttering around. It landed gracefully in her hand with a soft trill.

"You know," she whispered to the bird. "Being made a l'Cie, its not easy, even I'm a bit worried. But even if we don't know what will happen, we still need to keep our dreams alive. We still need something to fight for. We need something to look forward to. If we don't then what's the point of all this running away?"

"You know, you're right" Sazh said softly. "next stop is Nautilus, City of Dreams. Now hush so I can get some sleep."

She smiled as she lay on her back keeping watch. Between the warm breeze, the fresh air and the feeling of security being with Sazh, Vanille let her eye's grow heavy and she too fell into a dream of happier days.

"_kweh! Kweh!"_ Vanille thought she was dreaming about chocobo's but when the chirping persisted she cracked an eye open to see the baby chocobo chick fluttering around her head like mad.

She sat up slowly and let her eyes adjust to the light. According to Phoenix's position in the sky, she had slept for a few hours. With a stretch she looked around and gasped. "Sazh! Sazh where are you?"

The patch of grass where Sazh slept was empty and he was nowhere in sight. Vanille felt the panic rising in her chest. She reached around her back to where her folded fishing rod was attached to her belts. She hadn't had to use the weapon since the Vestige, but now being on her own, at least having the weapon ready may give her enough of a head start on a soldier or beast than not.

She ran as fast as she could gripping the rod in front of her. Her boots crushed grass, weeds and flowers as she trampled over them. Her eyes were wide with fear and her mind was trying to push out the panic. There was no possible way she could continue running on her own. "Sazh!" she screamed. "Where are you?"

Just as she was about to let tears slip from her eye she saw a figure standing on the edge of a pond between reeds of bamboo. Upon closer inspection she let out a long sigh of relief. "Sazh!" she exclaimed not sure if she wanted to hit him for scaring her like that or to hug him and make him swear he would never do that again.

He jumped as he turned to her, guns in hand pointed at her. "Oh…sorry, you scared me." He said as he placed the guns back in the holsters on his legs. "I didn't think you'd wake up so soon."

"What….were….you doing?" she asked carefully.

"Just thinking. Thinking about my son. Thinking about being a l'Cie. Thinking about what I have worth fighting for."

She smiled. "Don't blame yourself Sazh. You can't control who a fal'Cie picks for a focus."

"My son Dajh." He whispered.

"Excuse me?"

"He was picked. He's a l'Cie."

"How?" was all Vanille could ask.

"He said, that for his birthday, he wanted to see a fal'Cie up close and in person. So I took him on a guided tour of the Euride Gorge Plant. You know, the plant that sits atop the Volcano about five miles off from Bodhum and supplies energy to most of Cocoon."

Vanille nodded.

"Well, as an extra surprise I thought I'd buy him a chocobo chick to take home from the gift shop. I turned my back on him for a second, and he vanished. Kid ran off into the plant. I searched all over for him. I found him in one of the observation decks. Sazh continued.

"And," Vanille whispered but her voice was cracking.

"When I finally found him, he was unconscious. It was too late, the fal'Cie that worked the plant got to him. It turned him into a l'Cie, but not just any l'Cie, a Cocoon l'Cie." Sazh added. "After the pain I went through being branded myself, I don't want to even think of the pain that Dajh went though."

Vanille couldn't look him in the eye. "That's horrible." Was all she could say.

"Apparently, the fal'Cie at the gorge felt threatened for some reason, maybe because of the Vestige, maybe because of the Pulse fal'Cie sitting within it. Whatever it was, the fal'Cie at the gorge branded Dajh to protect itself. Being a Cocoon l'Cie probably meant he had a focus to defend and save Cocoon. He's a hero. But we're Pulse l'Cie…we're Dajh's enemies." Sazh's voice was beginning to waver as if the memories were opening old wounds. "PSICOM showed up shortly after to take custody of him. They did one test after another but even then they couldn't find out his focus."

Vanille couldn't hold back her tears. "I'm so sorry Sazh. That's such an awful thing."

"You know, Dajh gained some special abilities after becoming a Cocoon l'Cie. He had a way of sensing things that were Pulse related. He was the one who alerted the Sanctum that a Pulse fal'Cie was living in the Vestige, and he also told them that a Pulse l'Cie was running around Bodhum. So I put myself on the Purge train."

"Why?" Vanille questioned.

"I figured Dajh's focus had something to do with destroying the Pulse fal'Cie. I thought that if I could do it for him, he'd be spared the task of completing his focus and the Sanctum would give me my son back."

Vanille couldn't find the words to respond. All she could think was out of all of them, Lightning, Snow and Sazh had this the hardest. They watched a loved one turn into a l'Cie and tried to protect them, and in doing so paid the price of becoming l'Cie themselves. It just didn't seem fair. The two of them traveled through the marshy land in silence. Sazh was still torn up over revealing his past and his reasoning for boarding the train.

Since they didn't have to worry about PSICOM troops chasing after them they didn't have to make their patterns through the wetlands random and took the most direct route through following Sazh's direction since he had been here plenty of times before. After a few hours traveling through the lush land Sazh broke the silence by saying "Check it out." As he pointed to a row of docks sticking out over a large lake. "we can catch a ferry from here directly to Nautilus."

Vanille nodded. Once they got into the city they could blend in and think of happier things than all this Pulse and Cocoon fal'Cie and l'Cie business. They were on the edge of civilization again. "Make sure you're brand is covered" she whispered as she adjusted her now worn and dirt stained orange skirts.

It began to rain, so the two of them quickly ran to the pavilions that covered long lines of benches on the docks. Handfuls of people were sitting along the benches, mostly rangers who worked in the wetlands that were getting off work for the day. They busied themselves by talking on cell phones or reading the newspaper. No one so much as gave a second glance to Sazh and Vanille even though they were covered in dirt. Seeing as the other workers sitting with them were sweaty and dirt covered as well explained why. The rains in the wetlands came suddenly and caused the wetlands to become nothing but mud.

"Sazh, do you hate Pulse?" she whispered making sure no one could hear.

"Why wouldn't I? Look at this mess it's gotten us all into."

Vanille looked away.

"Of course, that's not to say I always hated it. I've always been a bit suspicious about the Sanctum's motives, seemed like all they did was scare people about Pulse without a shred of proof, but now that all of this has happened it's hard to choose sides."

"I see"

"You know Vanille, I've been thinking" Sazh added. "Its all because Dajh found that Pulse fal'Cie that this whole Purge business started."

"You're wrong!" Vanille cried. "It couldn't have been your son. They would have eventually found it you know."

Sazh sighed as he looked at the rain pouring off the roof of the pavilion. "It was that scum from Pulse that did this."

Vanille shot up from her seat and ran out into the rain. She wanted to use the rain as a way to cover up the tears that were now streaming down her face. She clenched her fist and let them come silently.

"Vanille, you're getting soaked" Sazh called. "Come and sit down. We're both exhausted."

"I'm fine!" she cried as she let the rain wash the dirt and grime from her face. "Its only water!"

Sazh was about to drag her back under the shelter of the pavilion, when he saw the ferry pull up. He let the pain he was feeling disappear. From now on it was going to be crucial that they have as low a profile as possible and draw as little attention to themselves. If they succeeded, all they had to do was blend in for a few weeks and hopefully meet up with the others at Lake Bresha in a few weeks. Until then, they could only take it one step at a time.


	9. Chapter 8: To Hunt l'Cie

Chapter 8

To hunt l'Cie

Palumpolem was filled with PSICOM soldiers. They flooded the grounds and flew in clusters in the air. They were organized and sectioned into groups. Each group was responsible for covering an area of the town from the entrance gate of the city all the way up the cliffs to the residential condo's.

Lightning and Hope ducked behind a large rock located just outside the gate to the city observing the area. They could hear the announcements being made over every television, every billboard and every radio all in the city echoing from within.

"Attention all units and citizens, this is director Rosch of PSICOM division. I am so grieved to announce that Cocoon is caught in the grip of a Pulse-born terror. It has been confirmed that Pulse l'Cie are on the loose and while we are doing everything in our power to capture the vermin, we cannot allow them to infiltrate our cities and contaminate them. If this happens the peace and stability we have fought so hard to maintain will be nothing more than a memory. Pulse l'Cie must be eliminated and we ensure you that we are working as hard as we can to do just that."

"Um Light, I don't think our plan is going to work out." Hope whispered to her.

"How did they know?" she questioned. "They've been on our tail everywhere and with each attempt to trap us they've gotten closer and closer. How did they know we were going to Palumpolem. It's like they're waiting for us."

"What do we do? Just run for the train station and board a train for Eden?"

Lightning shook her head. "I don't think they'll let anyone leave, nor will they let anyone in. Which brings us to our next problem, how the hell do we get out of here without being spotted?"

"Why don't we just go into the city and try and stay low for a while. Then once this calms down we can start backtracking through the Whitewoods and figure out where to run to next." Hope suggested.

"Sound's great" Lightning whispered. "Except for a few things. One how do we get into the city, two how do we hide once we're in there and three how do we get out if we're spotted?"

Hope smiled. "I live here remember. I know all the short cuts and secret passage ways. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into the forest around them that lined the shore.

"Hope where are you going?" Lightning asked

"Here" he whispered as he pointed to a large pipe that jutted out of the earth in the middle of the forest area. "we can use the old plumbing system to sneak in and out. I used to play here all the time when I was a little kid. No one knows about this, not even the army."

"We can sneak in right under their noses" she whispered with a grin on her face as she followed Hope through the complex twisting of the old rusting pipes. After quite a few minutes of climbing she was about to ask Hope if he knew what he was doing when he announced. "Okay, we're in."

She climbed out of the pipe to find herself standing in a massive orange lit room in a warehouse or something. She eyed the pipe they came in from and was shocked that the army hadn't found that yet.

"Don't worry, only kids like me know about that entrance." Hope assured her.

"They'll find it. With a l'Cie scare as big as the one we're causing they will find and seal off any possible way into and out of the city. " She retorted. "Where are we exactly?"

"This is the Nutriculture complex. Its where the Sanctum fal'Cie Carbuncle creates, manages and packages food for most of Cocoon. It's all automated so no one works here, its just the fal'Cie." Hope answered.

"Fantastic," Lightning replied with sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Just what we need, a sanctum fal'Cie alerting PSICOM we're here. We'd best move and get out of here."

"Hey Lightning" Hope asked. "When are we gonna stop running?"

"What do you mean" she asked as she moved swiftly through the corridors of the Nutriculture building. "We can't stop running, we'll never stop running."

"We're l'Cie, ticking time bombs. Either we complete our focus in time or we don't and turn Cie'th." Hope was gripping the brand on his left wrist.

"What's your point?" Lightning asked him. "I know that much already."

"Why are we wasting so much time running away? Our time could run out any day now, and we haven't even gotten any closer to knowing what our focus is let alone attempt to complete it." Hope snapped. "When are we gonna stop running and just fight?"

"I don't know yet" was all Lightning could respond with. It was true she felt the same way. If she was a Pulse l'Cie and had nothing left to live for then why not just try and complete her focus so that she too may be granted the same eternal life her sister had been given. If it meant destroying her home world, then so be it. The people of this land were so eager to end her life, why not do the same back to them and end theirs?

"What do you mean?" Hope yelled. He was beginning to get irritated. He was sick of running away and he was beginning to realize that they could escape as many times as they wanted, but every new encounter the Sanctum was getting closer and closer to their capture. Whatever or whomever the Sanctum inside Intel was, it was able to track them down to their very decisions of what to do or where to go.

"Listen, you're friend Vanille said something very important. She said we can't lose hope, it's the only thing we have left that's worth living for. I lost both of my parents and I had to be strong for Serah. So I became Lightning. I shed my old name and would answer only to Lightning. I thought that by changing my name, I could change who I was. Lightning is a mask I wear to cover up the me inside that I am afraid to show others. It was because Lightning is proud and won't admit mistakes that Serah ended up trapped in that Vestige. I blame myself for it, so I look forward to the day I can see Serah again and apologize to her. That is what I live for."

"And I live to make Snow realize and admit his mistakes." Hope said. "Every time I think about him it brings it all back. Seeing my mom fall into the abyss and then I see his smiling face and I get so angry. How can he live knowing that he let her die? I know I can't bring her back, and I it kills me every time I think about it, but he needs to pay for what he has done."

Lightning flinched.

Hope felt the anger subside and sighed in frustration. "I'm sorry. I get so frustrated some times. At least I know there's something else I want to do."

"And what's that" Lightning said as they came to one of the building's exits.

"If we can manage it, I want to talk with my dad. I want to tell him what happened to mom, and I want to explain everything from the Purge to becoming a l'Cie."

Lightning couldn't hold back her smile as she pushed open the door and walked out into the bright daylight. They were in an arena of some sort that was abandoned of any life. Her smile faded instantly. If PSICOM was so desperate to find them there should have been at least one or two soldiers patrolling this area. Something was definitely wrong and it gave Lightning a bad feeling. She pulled out her sword and Hope followed in suit but yanking the miniature knife from his pants pocket.

A voice filled the air. It was smooth and mechanical as it radiated from the walls around them. Lightning looked up to see a large billboard advertising a weight loss pill was replaced by an image of a Sanctum sky fleet ship.

"In a recent convened emergency conference, the Sanctum announced that the fugitive l'Cie on the run have been located." The mechanical voice rang throughout the stands.

The first thing Hope thought was that Sazh and Vanille had been captured. But he gasped when he heard the voice continue.

"The military plans on apprehending the l'Cie with a live and public execution. These images are coming to you live from the scene here at Palumpolem." The billboard showed a picture of Lightning and Hope walking through the abandoned stadium.

Lightning pulled her weapon ready to strike but it was too late. The air around them was filled with airships and floods of soldiers came rushing from every angle in the stadium. It was the two of them against two hundred troops and two dozen flying aircrafts. Lightning knew she was a good fighter, but even she knew when to admit defeat. Even so, she wasn't going to toss her weapon down and let them kill her without a fight

She looked at Hope. "Run! I'll keep them busy. You survive this. Tell your father, make amends." Then she turned to face her competition.

Just as she was about to strike an explosion was heard from overhead. Part of the stadium crumbled sending chunks of rock hurtling toward the clustered masses of troops. From the destruction more soldiers came bursting into the stadium, but rather that join the others who held the captured l'Cie on the spot, they attacked the other soldiers. Lightning used the opportunity to grab Hope and run behind a pillar just as a few dozen soldiers opened fire on the spot she stood just seconds before. Lightning knew she needed to find another plan. Staying there wasn't going to work as a hiding spot for much longer, especially since the ships overhead were telling the troops where to look for them.

Lightning was about to move again when a bright light flashed in the air. She thought she saw two feminine figures dancing within the light freezing whatever they touched encasing a large mass of their pursuit in a chunk of ice. When the light cleared the entire arena was filled with ice. Not only had the troops been encased but the ships ahead had large chunks of ice attached stopping their weaponry from working.

"Look!" Hope yelled. "Its him"

Sitting on a motorbike was Snow. He rode the bike down a ramp of ice towards where Lightning and Hope were fighting for their lives. Even more curiously, sitting behind him was a woman wearing a blue sari with dark skin and hair.

Lightning didn't want to wait to find out just what that idiot Snow had been up to, nor to find out who his mysterious lady friend was. She grabbed Hope by the arm and yanked him through a cleared area. She slashed down any soldier that got in her way. One by one the soldiers fell while the other's perished within the ice.

Snow directed the motor bike to where Lightning and Hope were hiding. "Hey Lightning!" he called with a grin and a wink.

Instantly her hate for Snow returned.

"We need to split up!" the woman in the blue sari called. "We bought you some time, but they have a hefty load of soldiers here. Backup will be arriving soon." She gripped Lightning's arm and said. "I'd like it very much if you would come with me. There's something I need to discuss with you."

Snow nodded. "It's okay. Go with her."

Lightning thrust Hope into Snow's arms. "Keep him safe." She demanded.

"No need to worry. You're hero is back to protect you."

"I mean it Snow. Keep him safe. If you don't I swear I'll kill you myself after we get out of this." She snaped as she followed the woman up a pair of stairs and out into the streets of Palumpolem.

After Lightning and the mysterious woman left, Hope found himself standing next to the one person he wanted dead in an ice covered stadium with only minutes left to escape. Knowing that the army would be back with more soldiers made him reason the order of his priorities. Sure he hated Snow, but right now the thing he needed to focus on was escaping even if that meant escaping with someone he despised. In the back of his head he reasoned that if he lived through this, there would be another time to seek revenge on Snow. So with a twinge of regret he tossed the idea of stabbing Snow repeatedly with the pocket knife Lightning had given him to the back of his brain. For now, he needed to focus on running away.

None of this made sense. PSICOM the top of the ladder in the Sanctum's army was bent on destroying all l'Cie, however, the people who had saved him and Lightning from their public on the spot execution also wore army uniforms very similar to that of the PSICOM. So it brought Hope to this question. Who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. Sure all of Cocoon thought they were the bad guys, but could it be possible that there was a section of the Sanctum that believed that the l'Cie weren't out to murder millions of people?

"I don't get it," Hope said as he followed Snow up a pair of stairs that led opposite the way that Lightning had gone. "Who were those guys you came with?"

Snow grinned. "Let's just put it this way, not all sanctions of the army are willing to follow what the Sanctum says just based on claims. The people I was with are a branch of the defense corps called the Calvary."

"The Calvary?"

"Yeah, they are an independent branch that secretly despise the Sanctum. Let's just say they aren't fans of fal'Cie of any kind." Snow answered. They ran into an abandoned alleyway. "Say, you've toughened up a bit since I last saw you."

"Yeah well, I'm a l'Cie now. I have to." Hope retorted.

Snow sighed as he peeked around a corner to see if the coast was clear. "It's not fair you know…that you and Vanille became l'Cie. The only ones who should have been cursed and the only ones that should be fighting the army are us dumb grownups."

"You think that fighting is stupid?"

"Fighting is something that has been around for generations. Humans will always fight one another just as Cocoon and Pulse will always have wars with each other. Fighting is only stupid if you get yourself killed." Snow answered as he surveyed the area. A handful of troops were standing at the end of the street.

Anger began flooding Hope again. He couldn't believe what Snow had just said. He began remembering how Snow had let his mother die and how he watched it all unfold. He clenched his fists biting back the urge to yell; instead he felt his hand close around the handle of the knife in his pocket. He was about to pull it out when Snow said, "Come on, those troops aren't paying attention. If we move quickly we can make it. Where do you think we can hide?"

Hope hesitated. He could do it; he could stab him and leave him to die just as he let his mother die. This was the payback he was waiting for and wasn't sure if he'd ever get another chance let alone enough courage to do it. After a moment of silence he said "the residential district. I have a house there. We can hide there until we figure a way out of here."

Snow nodded just as a noise reverberated from his pants pocket. He pulled out a thin holographic cell phone. With a flick of his wrist he answered. "It's me. What's up?"

What he was greeted with was a very unhappy irritated accented voice. "You know damn well what's up? Why the hell didn't you call in? I told you to call in as soon as you made it out of the stadium safely. We've been waiting for you to check in."

"Oops. Must have slipped my mind." Snow replied casually.

"Right! I'm sure it did." The female voice on the other end of the line called. "What's your status?"

"Great. We made it out and we've avoided PSICOM so far, though just standing around talking with you might get us caught at this rate."

"Real funny!" was the sarcastic response. "I'm great, you're great, we're all perfectly peachy. Now can we focus and find a way out of here." Her voice was beginning to crack in frustration. "Here' talk with your comrade."

Snow heard muffling voices as the phone got passed from who was no doubt the woman that was riding the bike with Snow to another familiar female voice. "Snow?"

"Lightning? Sis are you okay?" Even though he had just seen Lightning fighting for her life in the arena, he didn't get the chance to see how she was doing. He had been worried sick about her since they had split up. Sure he had been fuming when she ditched him and Serah, but after having time to think about it on a cozy safe airship he realized that Lightning had been right all along. He was incredibly lucky that the Calvary was flying over the area at the time or there was no doubt that PSICOM would have gotten him eventually and he wouldn't have stood a chance. It also pained him to know that when he was in his cushy room on the Calvary airship taking a nap and eating full and healthy meals, Lighting and the others were running in the dirt and mud with no food or shelter.

"I'm not your sister!" She yelled. "Stop calling me that." She sounded like her normal self, perhaps a tad out of breath from running around and nearly being shot to death. "Where are we meeting up? We need to pick a rendezvous point."

After a moment Snow replied "Hope's house in the residential district. Felix Heights 35-A." he rattled of as Hope listed his home address.

"Fine. See you soon."

"Lightning?"

"What?" She snapped rather impatiently.

"Be careful. Your face was plastered all over that screen. People know what you look like now."

"I will. And Snow?" She didn't wait for him to answer. "Remember what I said. Keep Hope safe. His face was on that screen as much as mine was."

Before he could answer the line went dead. Hope looked at him expectantly. "Well," Snow said with a grin. "Hope, lead the way."

Lightning disconnected before Snow could say another word. On the outside she looked irritated from having to deal with his cockiness, but on the inside she was secretly thanking the Maker that he was safe. She was sure he was going to die out on Lake Bresha, but seeing him alive gave her a feeling of relief.

"You said you're name is Fang right?" Lightning asked as she handed the phone back to her.

"Yep, and you're name is Lightning correct?" She didn't even wait for Lightning to confirm that, it was indeed her name. "Now that we are on a first name basis let's get to business."

They had made their way to the central heart of the city hoping to blend into the crowd but to keep the civilians safe, they quickly slipped into abandoned alley ways and began to make a plan as to how to escape without losing their lives. The darkness of the alleyways proved to be a useful ally as the troops patrolled the area on the lookout for the missing l'Cie. The Calvary was making quite a ruckus as most of the PSICOM troops were busy trying to take them on, which gave Lightning and her newfound companion Fang a chance to hide.

"That's quite an accent you've got" Lightning noted. "I've only ever heard one person speak with an accent slightly similar to yours."

Fang grinned. "You're talking about Vanille right?"

Lightning did a double take. "You know Vanille? Is she family?"

"You could say that. We _are_ both from Gran Pulse. So I guess that makes us family."

Lightning couldn't help it, but her jaw dropped. "Gran Pulse as in Pulse, the hell on earth?"

"Yeah, the world below that you all hate so much and want to destroy everything from." She replied. "You know, I'm the same as you. I've got a few screws loose but I'm a l'Cie too." She held out her right arm. Sitting just below her shoulder was a brand. It didn't match Lightning's though; it was completely covered in what looked like a white spider-web like pattern. She could barely see the black of the brand through its white cover.

"That's a brand?" Lightning asked.

Fang nodded and said "Back on Gran Pulse, Vanille and I were both l'Cie, that's how we became close. Sure we lived in the same village, but when we were both picked to be l'Cie we became almost like sisters. We had gone to sleep in Crystal Stasis on Gran Pulse, but when we woke up, here we were, on Cocoon." She added. "Snow said that everyone in your group has been blaming themselves for becoming l'Cie. I got a newsflash for you. The real reason you're a l'Cie; the real reason why your sister became a l'Cie, and the reason Cocoon is in such an uproar now is because Vanille and I woke up."

"I don't understand." Lightning said. None of this was wrapping around her brain correctly. How could Fang and Vanille be the cause of all this? How could the two of them wake up from crystal stasis? If they woke up from their crystal sleep, then maybe Serah could too. There was still hope.

"When we woke up from crystal stasis, we couldn't remember anything about our focus or what we'd done, but we did know this, we were still branded l'Cie and our awakening triggered the fal'Cie Anima to awaken within the Vestige along with us." Fang explained. "We spent our days wandering Cocoon, a land that hated all things Pulse, hoping to remember something. We wasted time, not attempting to complete the focus we were given because we were too busy trying to remember what our focus was. As punishment, the fal'Cie started to make more l'Cie. It called out, and your sister answered."

"You mean the fal'Cie called out to Serah?" Lightning asked. "Why her?"

"The fal'Cie called out to no one in particular. It just called out for someone, and your sister unfortunately was the one to answer first. We found her in the Vestige unconscious, but it was too late, she was already branded."

Lightning remained silent, as if taking it in.

"If it makes you feel better, I can assure you, it was us that set off the Pulse panic here, not Serah. When they realized l'Cie were on the loose, they didn't even know Serah was branded. Vanille and I caused a bit of a ruckus and we were discovered to be l'Cie. That's how we got separated. Shortly after, the Pulse panic started and I had to keep a low profile."

"So, let me get this straight." Lightning said slowly. "You and Vanille are from Pulse-"

"Gran Pulse" Fang corrected her.

"Fine. _Gran_ Pulse. You wake up from crystal nap time here on Cocoon and decide to cause havoc to all it's citizens by revealing yourselves to the Sanctum? Do you realize thousands of people were killed?" Lightning clenched her fists.

Fang shrugged. "Cocoon is a filthy world anyway. Why should I care about this place?"

Lightning was fuming. She continued through clenched teeth. "Now you're telling me that Serah was made a l'Cie, because the fal'Cie grew impatient with you?"

Fang shrugged again. "We didn't do our job right. We somehow found a way around our focus and achieved crystal stasis. When we woke up we were supposed to complete our focus all the way, problem is, we took too long for the fal'Cie's liking and it made your sister a l'Cie. Sorry."

Lightning struck her. Her palm connected with Fang's cheek causing a loud crack to fill the air. Fang looked at Lightning as she let her hand brush the cheek that had just been slapped raw. "I suppose I deserve that. You know you sound like Snow."

Lightning snorted. "How did you come across that bonehead anyway?"

"After Vanille and I were separated, I searched everywhere for her but she was nowhere to be found. A man named Cid Raynes leader of the Defense Corps Calvary found me. Said he didn't like the Sanctum and was willing to protect l'Cie for the sole reason that the Sanctum wanted l'Cie dead. Shortly after, he got word from one of his men that a girl fitting Vanille's description was seen in Bodhum. I searched for her, but with all the tourists there to view the annual fireworks, I wasn't able to find her before the Purge happened. I managed to get out of the city but Vanille didn't. Fang answered.

Lightning simply nodded.

"We had to keep a low profile as we searched. The Calvary couldn't well burst in and save just a single person at the Hanging Edge, so we waited a bit before showing up. Raynes had no idea that the Purge was a cover up for a massacre or else we would have tried to rescue everyone." Fang explained. "By the time we arrived, everyone was either dead or hiding and on top of that, we saw Lake Bresha and how it had been turned into the same Crystal that encases the body when a l'Cie reaches crystal stasis so we checked into it. We searched the area. By that time you and Vanille were long gone, but we did see Snow. So we rescued him and freed Serah"

"You freed Serah?"

Fang nodded. "Yep. She's still in crystal stasis but she's on the Calvary's ship the Lindblum as we speak. Cid has researchers working on trying to find a way to wake her up."

Lightning let out a relieved sigh. Snow was safe, and so was Serah. Plus, now she had the hope of knowing that Serah wasn't dead and that she would one day wake up. "Do you think the others are safe?" she asked once her anger finally faded. "They'd make an announcement or something right?"

"Sure as hell they'd make an announcement. They'd want the people to know that the big bad l'Cie have been caught. These people are twisted." Fang replied and added. "But hey, don't get me wrong, Gran Pulse is just as twisted. I grew up learning that Cocoon was a floating nest of vipers ready to strike at any moment. From what I've seen, you've probably heard similar."

"Yeah."

"A floating nest of vipers is exactly what I thought Vanille and I landed in at first, but then we met some really amazing people here, like Serah and suddenly, murdering these people didn't seem like a good idea. They were the same as us, afraid and given no reason as to why." Fang continued.

"I've been thinking," Lightning said "If you were in crystal stasis, does that mean you completed your focus?"

"It must. Those are the l'Cie rules. You either complete your focus and are granted slumber in crystal stasis, or you fail and turn Cie'th." Fang answered.

"There's no way around it? You even said that you didn't complete your focus correctly and that's why you were brought back."

"True," Fang whispered. "I've been wondering that myself. I can't remember my focus from before or I'd tell you if we completed it or not. Maybe the fal'Cie wasn't specific enough. Maybe we completed our focus in the most vague sense possible. Then there's my brand, its all messed up."

"How so?"

"Well look at it, it looks nothing like Vanille's, and hers is the way its supposed to look. I can't tell how close it is to Cie'th city like this." She replied.

Lightning's eyes grew wide. "You can tell how close you are to turning into a Cie'th?"

Fang grinned and cocked her head slightly. "Yeah, didn't you know. As time goes on, the brand changes. Once the red eye in the center opens up all the way and all the lines sticking out become arrows, time's up. Lemme see your brand."

Lightning hesitated. But she slowly unzipped her turtleneck shirt.

"Nowhere near, you got plenty of time. Couple of month's maybe, but don't let that slow you down. The fal'Cie have a way of knowing if you are trying to complete your focus or running away from it. They can make it progress faster to coax you along to doing your job."

All throughout their conversation they had been taking a route that led through dark alleys and sewers. Eventually they would need to step back into the bustling civilization that was in a panic in order to reach Hope's house. Lightning figured the longer they stayed hidden, the better. Their first priority was to meet back up with Hope and Snow, then they'd devise a plan to break out of Palumpolem and onto the Calvary's airship. The airship was the safest place for them at the moment and since they wouldn't need to return to Lake Bresha to save Serah they could go in search of Vanille and Sazh and figure out just what their focus meant and how to avoid it just like Fang and Vanille had done once before.

Snow was afraid, that much was for certain. But at a time like this, fear had no place in his mind as he followed Hope through a series of dark tunnels. His first priority was to hide the fear that was eating at him. With Hope, who was nothing more than a kid around, showing fear was not an option. Besides, what hero showed fear? Instead he focused on working out just how they were going to break out of the city.

The Calvary's Intel told him before he even made his grand entrance with Fang that PSICOM had tracked Lightning and Hope through the abandoned sewage system and into the Nutriculture Center. And that fact alone bugged him. Sure by now troops would be swarming through the Nutriculture Center blocking a way out, but that isn't what annoyed him. What got on his nerves was the fact that PSICOM somehow had been on their tails all along, and by some miracle Lightning and Hope managed to escape every time.

After spending hours on the Calvary's ship, and learning from Fang about l'Cie, he was able to see for himself PSICOM's movements. Somehow they were able to predict where Lightning and Hope were going and they were casting their net and it was tightening to the point where escape was going to be near impossible. What puzzled him however was how Sazh and Vanille managed to escape. If PSICOM could track Hope and Lightning, then surely they could track Sazh and Vanille.

While Snow thought that splitting up was a smart idea, he was worried about the two l'Cie that seemingly went missing and off the Sanctum radar. He silently sent out a prayer that they would keep up what they were doing and stay hidden.

"This is as far as we can stay hidden" Hope said suddenly.

"Huh?"

"The old sewage system only goes this far. The rest of the way to my place will have to be in the open." Hope whispered. He'd taken them through an abandoned labyrinth of rusted pipe and crumbling tunnels that he and his friends used to play in when they were younger.

"This is risky." Snow stated. "PSICOM is desperate to get rid of us. I don't think they'll stop to move the citizens out of the way if they spot us."

Hope grimaced at the thought. Snow was right. If they were spotted by the army, the army would easily shoot at anyone or anything that got in the way of their targets. Hope was coming to realize that fear and panic could make a person do something insane if it meant saving themselves.

Snow hoisted himself up from the hole in the ground they were standing in and took a look around. They were standing a currently unused alleyway. With swift movements Snow peaked around the corner to a street lined with people. They stood in a long line jammed shoulder to shoulder with each other. PSICOM troops stood spaced out along the street holding guns to the people to coax them to stand still and stay quiet. The whole scene was highly reminiscent of the Purge that took place in Bodhum just a couple of days ago.

"Are they insane?" Hope whispered. "They're gonna purge all these people too? Are they gonna massacre all of Cocoon?"

"Hard to say kid." Snow replied. "PSICOM will do anything to protect Cocoon from all things Pulse. That means they're after not just us l'Cie, they're after anything that has been contaminated by Pulse."

"So because we l'Cie entered the city, they're going to purge everyone in it regardless if we came in contact with them or not?"

"It's what happened in Bodhum." Snow stated. "The reason they Purged the whole city was not because of the fal'Cie in the Vestige, it was because Serah was a l'Cie and she was roaming the streets of the city for days before they found her."

Hope sighed. "At this rate, more innocent people will be killed." Then his mind flashed back to his mother, and all the other people on the purge train who had been sentenced to death simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The more time he had to think about it the more he wanted to blame the Sanctum on the entire mess, but doing so would mean that Snow was not at fault for what happened to his mother. That , he couldn't accept. That was the one thing preventing him from forgetting any hope for a future in Cocoon and just giving into his focus and destroying it. It scared him to think that if he shifted the blame to the Sanctum like it should, than all the anger he had been building toward Snow was for nothing.

"So, what do you think we should do from here?" Snow asked.

"What Lightning told me" he answered. "Blend in."

Snow nodded. "You got it."

The two of them found an opening when the army troops weren't looking and they slipped into the group of people that were held up on the streets. The troops weren't looking for anyone in particular, but rather just trying to keep a group of very paranoid people from lashing out. They kept their heads low hoping not to draw attention to themselves. Snow felt more comfortable than Hope. People didn't know he was a l'Cie, but Hope on the other hand had his face plastered all over the city.

They inched through the crowd of people moving further away from the center of the city and closer toward the residential district that Hope's house was located. It was hard moving through the streets when troops held guns pointed at them screaming things like "Shut up" or "Don't move" Snow had to resort to waiting until the troops looked away before slipping into an abandoned alleyway or empty shop on the streets and find another crowd to blend in with. The process was extremely tedious and slow moving. While Snow would have liked to stay with a single group as they were moved to a different location, they ran the risk of being noticed that way.

It was about time to switch to another cluster of people when a young voice cried out "Hey! Isn't that the boy who was on the television screen?" A little girl holding a plush version of the mythical Eidolon Carbuncle pointed at Hope.

The cluster of people went silent as they inspected Hope. "Holy Maker, it is him" another voice cried. Instantaneously, the cluster of people moved away from Hope, panic written all over their faces. "It's the l'Cie boy!" a woman screamed.

Snow knew that they were not in a good position. He needed to get Hope and find a way out of there or else the PSICOM troops would be all over them.

"This is PSICOM troop leader of section D. We have the l'Cie boy here. I repeat we have the l'Cie boy here. Bring back up just in case" a soldier cried into his communication unit.

"_Well, so much for getting out of here before PSICOM found us"_ Snow thought to himself. Without thinking he grabbed Hope's arm and pulled him into the nearest alleyway between a bookstore and a coffee shop. Unfortunately he quickly found out that the alley he picked had a dead end. With a swift movement he placed himself between Hope and the growing crowd of both PSICOM troops civilians. While the troops held their guns ready to fire when given the command, the civilians had picked up random objects they had found in the streets or in store display's ranging from pipes, to shovels.

"If you protect the l'Cie then you are as vile as Pulse itself" a man cried to Snow. Disgust was written all over his face as he wondered how someone could possibly protect a l'Cie. The crowd advanced on them. Threats of "Kill the l'Cie" reverberated off the walls.

"Don't come any further" Snow warned.

The crowd ignored him as they advanced even closer.

"You asked for it" he said. He quickly yanked up the sleeve on his white overcoat to reveal his own l'Cie brand.

Gasps could be heard throughout the crowd. "Another l'Cie. How many of them are there?"

Snow didn't wait for them to react any more than their shocked gasps. He quickly used his magic and summoned a large shard of ice. As his brand began to pulse in a soft blue color the civilians hesitated and began to back away from the two l'Cie, for they believed cornered l'Cie were even more dangerous.

Snow kept adding to the ice shard following what Fang had taught him on the Calvary ship. "Build it up, until you're at the edge of control" she told him "then release it." Snow focused all of his energy into creating the large ice shard until it was nearly the size of Hope who was cowering behind him. In one swift movement he flicked his wrist and the shard of ice shot upward to an overhanging metal clump of pipes that connected the two storefronts.

The ice smashed into the pipes and they crumbled. The rubble piled between the two l'Cie and the hostile citizens and PSICOM troops. While the rubble only served as a small obstacle that could easily be climbed over, those wanting the l'Cie dead, hesitated.

"That was magic" a woman cried. "We don't stand a chance."

"If we stay here any longer, the l'Cie will kill us" another voice called.

Hope stepped forward. "I'm sorry" he whispered. "It's true we're l'Cie, but we didn't want this anymore than you do. I don't want to complete my focus, I just want to be left alone."

The crowd was silent as if taking in what he said. Could it be possible that a l'Cie had compassion like they were human? Certainly not, for the Sanctum always told them, that l'Cie were once human, but after being branded they were human no more for their mind was the possession of the fal'Cie that chose them.

"Stop them!" a voice cried. Several more troops had arrived. They rushed into the alleyway tossing aside innocent civilians like they were ragdolls. A few men came in on jet packs allowing them to float through the air.

Without a moment's hesitation Snow released his magic again sending a spear of ice into one of the men who danced above them. He crashed to the ground with a grunt. Thinking quickly, Snow yanked the jetpack off the soldier and threw it on his own back. He grabbed Hope and yelled "Hang on."

Hope felt his legs lift off the ground as a burst of green sparks flew from the pack that Snow was wearing. He gripped onto snow's arm with both hands as they hurdled upward at a speed that he thought shouldn't be possible for a simple army jet pack. He was sure he was feeling pain, but the adrenaline rush was covering up most of it. Mentally he added this event onto his list of things he survived when he really shouldn't have.

They burst through the cover of the buildings and into open space as they zigzagged randomly through the air. Surely PSICOM would be sending word of their escape and to be on the lookout for any suspicious movement through the air on a jetpack as Snow couldn't really control it. As they zoomed over clusters of buildings that stood further and further up the cliff Snow saw a decent spot to land. He managed to get the jetpack to take them closer to the ground but as he wasn't completely sure what he was doing he just let go of it when he felt that they could handle the drop.

Hope landed on his back and felt the air get knocked from his lungs. That's when the pain took action. It seeped into his bones and muscles as the adrenaline faded. Snow lay a few feet away on his side. He groaned. "That was not as graceful as I'd have liked it."

"Now what?" Hope asked as he slowly sat up trying to fight off a migraine that was forming behind his eyes. He looked around and saw they were lying in a massive sandbox at a playground. A playground that looked very familiar. They were at the playground his mother used to take him to all the time when he was younger. The playground that sat atop the cliff and was just blocks from his house.

"Phoenix's light is beginning to fade" Snow stated. "Darkness will be a good cover for us. How much further till we get to your place? This is the residential district right?"

Hope wasn't listening. Being here brought back too many painful memories. Memories of his mother and his father when they used to do things as a family, before his father got swept up in his job and never paid attention to his wife or son. Memories of his mother and how she'd push him on the swings or help him build a sand castle. Memories of her before Snow let her die to save himself. The anger boiled at the surface of his consciousness, and this time it was too strong to fight off. To hell with Snow! He needed to pay!

"Snow!" he yelled. "What is it you plan on doing?"

Snow looked at him oddly but said "I thought I told you already. Save Serah, protect Cocoon and have myself a big ole' happy family."

"Even if you're a l'Cie?"

"All the more reason to keep fighting for what I want." Snow replied as he looked at his brand. A tiny sliver of red peeked from the center. It was progressing.

"What if what you want gets other people….no…innocent people involved?" Hope asked.

"What are you saying?"

Hope pressed on. "What happens if you're actions to do what you want end up ruining someone else's life?"

"Hope I don't-" but Hope cut him off

"What if someone dies because of something you did? What then Snow? How do you pay?"

Snow was backing away from Hope. He was shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably as if remembering the Purge; replaying it all over in his head. "I can't!" he screamed. "There's nothing I can do to make something like that right again. When someone is dead, they're gone. There's nothing I can do or say to bring them back."

"So that's it!" Hope yelled. "You just say you can't fix it and run away?"

"What else can I do Hope? If what's got you all upset is what happened with the Purge then yes, it's my entire fault. I should have never gotten all those innocent people involved in parading around with me as I went to save Serah. I should have done it on my own and maybe they could have escaped. That's why I need to keep surviving. Until I can find the answer to your question."

Hope glared at Snow with distain. "There are no answers."

"What are you saying Hope?" Snow asked, his voice cracking.

"You deserve the same fate" he screamed as his mind flashed back one last time to the image that had been burned into his brain. The anger that had been boiling up within him finally exploded. A bring ring of light surrounded him as his brand began to glow. The light pulsed around him softly at first but grew more violently as it burst outward. The shockwave sent Snow flying through the air.

Snow was taken aback by Hope's tone of voice. He had never heard the kid speak like that and frankly he didn't believe that Hope had it in him to get that mad. Perhaps that's why Snow was overcome with shock when he felt his body lifted off the ground by the kid's magic. He flew over the railing of the observation deck of the playground that overlooked the city below. His fingers grasped wildly as he reached for something to grab on to.

His right hand grasped onto a pole of the railing. He dangled over the edge of the cliff as he looked helplessly into Hope's eyes. His feet tried to grasp onto something but found nothing but empty air.

Hope walked over to him as he pulled the pocket knife Lightning had given him out. Snow recognized it. It was the knife that he and Serah had picked out together to give to Lightning for her birthday after all. "Nora" is all Hope said.

"What?" Snow thought of his group of ragtag teenagers that always followed him around. They came up with the name NORA for their group.

"Nora Estheim" Hope continued. "She was my mother and she died because of you! You let her carry around that gun and you let her fall to her death."

Snow gasped. "You? You're the one she meant?" he asked as the memory of the elderly woman grasping his hand as she hung over the edge of the falling roadway came flooding back into his mind. She told Snow to find her son and take him home. He wanted to keep his word, but he had been so caught up in rescuing Serah that he completely forgot. He had no idea that her son was the boy he'd been traveling with all along.

"It's too late Snow. You killed her and now payment for it, is your own life." Snow screamed as he lifted the knife over his head.

There was a loud explosion. PSICOM had found them again and this time they weren't taking any chances of them escaping. They brought out a helicopter which shot at the playground behind them. The shockwave from the explosion knocked Hope off his feet as he tumbled forward and over the railing. Snow used his free arm to grab Hope as he tumbled downward. Hope had lost consciousness when his head hit the stone from the cliff. The dead weight was too much for Snow and he could feel his fingers slipping. Either he could drop Hope and save himself, or they would both fall to their deaths.

Snow closed his eyes and let go of the railing. The two of them plunged downward. He remembered grabbing Hope's body and hugging it close to his own to protect the kid. He did after all have a promise to keep to both Nora Estheim and Lightning. He vaguely remembered crashing through layers of glass and through thin rusted metal. The pain was so unbearable that he passed out anyway, not caring what happened to himself, but wishing that if he was going to die that the end would come sooner rather than later.


	10. Chapter 9: Sustained by Hate

Chapter 9

Sustained by Hate: Healing the Rifts

Snow was standing in the darkness. The inky void covered his surroundings and he couldn't make out what may be lurking cloaked in the shadows around him. Somewhere between his confusion and curiosity he realized that he could see his own body, as if his body was the only thing giving off light in the dark that surrounded him.

He tried to remember what had happened but he could only recall his memories of the day Serah told him that she had been made a l'Cie. That was the day everything changed. It was the day Serah's fate was sealed and Snow was forced to quit acting like a child and face the adult reality before him. The woman he loved was either going to end up killing him or die herself.

And before he could make sense of this reality he stood in she appeared before him, like a flickering ghostly image. "Snow, you must wake up." She said softly. "You need to return to reality. Your window for escape is closing."

"Serah! Is that really you?"

She smiled. "Silly, who else would it be?"

"I don't want to wake up Serah, I just want to stay with you." Snow replied.

"You mustn't. You promised me you'd save Cocoon." She whispered.

Snow sighed in defeat. "I couldn't protect you and I couldn't protect Hope either. What makes you think I can save Cocoon?"

She nodded. "Yes, but surviving is the first step to keeping your promise. Now please wake up."

Snow wanted to fight it, but he felt reality pulling him back to consciousness. "Serah I can't do this. I can't continue to run. They're getting closer and when they catch us I won't be able to keep my promise." He began to feel pain snaking its way from his chest throughout his body.

"If you stay here they'll kill you" Serah replied. She placed her ghostly hand on his cheek. "Don't worry. You're being protected. I know you can do this Snow. Find a way to fulfill your focus and we can be together again."

Before he could respond the pain forced him to open his eyes in reality, and he realized he wasn't in a dark void, but in an empty street in Palumpolem. The memories of falling off the cliff at the park came flooding back to him as he wondered how it was possible he survived a fall like that. Serah's words came drifting across his mind "_Don't worry, your being protected."_ Perhaps Serah was watching over them from wherever her consciousness was.

He struggled to move and regretted the action instantly. A sharp pain pierced his left side. He slowly sat up holding back screams of pain as he did so as to not draw attention. Both his ribs and arm had been broken. He saw deep purple bruises and odd lumps on his ribcage where bones had been severed when he lifted his shirt to check the damage. His left shoulder had also been dislocated and he figured his arm was fractured at the least. Getting out of here was going to be near impossible at this rate, but Serah's plea for him to escape gave him the motivation to at least try to get out of this mess.

A soft groan filled the air around him. Snow looked to see Hope's unconscious body lying next to him. He had taken most of the shock from the fall and Hope, using Snow as a cushion managed to escape major injury. He was covered in a few cuts and bruises but nothing seemed contorted or out of place.

Using his good arm Snow tossed Hope over his shoulder and slowly go t to his feet. Even though Hope had just tried to kill him, now was not the time to let him die. He made promises and he intended on keeping them from this point onward. Besides, he refused to be responsible for the death of another member of the Estheim family.

Slowly moving forward focusing only on the next step ahead he limped through the street, not sure exactly of where he was going or how long he could survive but he swore as he walked along the quiet street that he could hear Serah's voice somewhere in the distance cheering him in, beckoning him to take just one more step.

Just as he thought the pain was going to rip his body apart Hope began to stir. "Hey" Snow grunted.

Hope looked around and realized he was being carried over someone's shoulders. For a moment he thought that the army had caught him and they were transporting him someplace for a public execution to take place, but he caught a glimpse of a familiar white overcoat. Snow was carrying him. He remembered confronting Snow with the intention of pushing him off the cliff. Just as he was about to make good on his promise he saw the army helicopter from the corner of his eye fire at the playground. After that, his memory was blank. He figured they must have fallen well over two hundred feet. How they survived was another thing he could add to his list of l'Cie mysteries. "You saved me didn't you? Why? Why did you save me?"

"Because I was asked to keep you safe, by Lightning and by your mother." The pressure Hope's weight was placing on Snow's ribcage was causing him a lot of anguish. He slowly placed Hope to his feet. "I'm sorry. What happened was my entire fault. I put your mother in danger and I let her slip from my grasp. Please let me make this right between us"

Hope looked at Snow in confusion. His hatred for Snow had dissipated and he could hardly find a reason to blame him anymore. Perhaps Vanille was right, talking with Snow allowed his anger to subside and clear his mind. "But you said before that nothing you could do would make things right."

"I say a lot of stupid things Hope." Snow stated. "Most of what I say is useless. I'm not a hero, and I don't think I can protect Cocoon, but I promised some people that I would keep you safe and I intend to keep those promises."

"So everything you've said about saving Serah and protecting Cocoon was a lie?"

"No, not a lie, but an excuse. I used those things as a way to give myself a purpose in life even when what I was really doing was covering up my own guilt. I know you don't like me and you don't have to accept my apology, but I'm at least asking that you think about it. You have every reason to hate me and want me dead, but rifts like this between us will only give the Sanctum more power." Snow whispered.

Hope remained silent as he took in Snow's plead.

Snow pulled out the knife Light had given him. "Here, that's Light's isn't it? I found it next to you where we landed."

"What? I tried to kill you with this. Why are you giving it back to me?"

Snow pressed on. "You know, that knife was a present from Serah to keep her safe. Light really treasures it and if she trusted you with something that important, then you should be the one to carry it."

"Thanks" Hope whispered as he placed the knife in his pocket.

"Let me figure things out first." Snow said. "Let me figure out how to protect Cocoon. If nothing I do can make up for what happened, then I will take any punishment you dish out at me."

Hope stood up. "She's gone Snow. You can take the blame but it won't bring her back. I knew it all along. Vanille tried to tell me but I just wanted someone to be angry at. Now I realize that you aren't the person I should be blaming for this, it's the Sanctum and their twisted sanctum fal'Cie that order them around."

Snow tried to move onward but the pain seared through him making him dizzy. He fell to the ground fighting the urge to vomit.

"Snow what's wrong with your side?" Hope placed his hand on Snow's bruised ribcage and winced when he felt the lumps that were probably bones sticking out at an odd angle. He began to cast his magic to heal when footsteps could be heard echoing through the abandoned street. "_They found up that quick?"_ Hope thought. "_There's no way we can escape in this state. We're finished!" _

Hope grabbed the knife Lightning had given him and braced himself for the hordes of troops that would probably flood the street. He was ready for a fight, but this time those who deserved to die would feel the blade of the knife, not those who were allies. Two figures ran around the corner and Hope let out a relieved sigh. "Lightning!"

Lightning ran down the street followed by the woman that had escaped the arena with her. Hope vaguely remembered Snow mentioning her name was Fang as they traveled through the abandoned pipes earlier "There you are! We saw the explosion. Are you alright?" Lightning said breathless.

Hope nodded. "I'm fine but Snow's hurt. I don't think my healing will work on injuries like that."

"What happened?"

Hope hesitated. "I…..I tried to get revenge on Snow for my mom…" tears began to flood his eyes. They streamed down his cheeks leaving streaks in their wake.

"Oh, Hope!" She wrapped her arms around him. For once Lightning was showing emotion. "It's okay, everything will be alright."

"Okay people, we need to keep moving" Fang urged. She hoisted Snow onto her shoulder. Hope noted that for a thin looking woman she was built and for her picking up a grown man looked like child's play. "You think he'll be alright."

Lightning grinned. "He's too stubborn to die. Let's get him to your house Hope, then we can see just what that healing magic of yours can do."

The Esthiem residence was tucked on the edge of the residential district towards the top of the cliff. With help from Fang and Lightning, Hope was able to lead the way to his house with ease as the girls took turns helping Snow hobble along behind him. Hope's house could have been considered a small estate by Palumpolem standards. Since the city was built on the cliff houses were packed into small confined areas that gave little space between them. Hope's place however had more land to it. Lightning confirmed this second Hope opened the gate that lead to a quaint courtyard that stood before his house. True, it was a small courtyard with a single tree in the center adorned with a bed of flowers on a patch of grass, but this small piece of land showed that Hope's family had money and were probably well known and respected in the city.

The second thing that Lightning confirmed as being wealthy was the fact that the stairs leading up to the large front door were marble and the door itself was made of a deep cherry glossed oak. The building was made from fine stone and while it wasn't wide, it was tall. As it turned out Hope had kept his family's wealth from his companions.

Hope hesitated in front of the door but when he looked at Lightning she gave an encouraging nod. The sooner they got in the house, the better. She figured that with so many people in a panic that it would be a while before the Sanctum figured out they were hiding in someone's house. After all who would be crazy enough to let the cursed l'Cie roam their dwelling? It was true Hope's face was plastered all over the city, but unless people recognized him as Hope Estheim resident of Palumpolem, the Sanctum wouldn't send PSICOM to crash down the door for at least a few hours. Those few hours were what they needed to escape on the Calvary's ship.

Hope rang the doorbell. A light on the side of the door flashed blue. Hope knew this was the security system showing his father who was standing outside. It was only a matter of seconds before the door flew open and Bartholomew Esthiem emerged from the house in frantic confusion. "Hope!" It seemed he was somewhere between confusion and shock.

Hope tried to look away from his father. He looked the same as Hope remembered. Tall, well dressed and wearing spectacles that sat on the bridge of his nose. What was different was the stubble growing on his face. Upon closer look Hope could see his father's puffy bloodshot eyes. Marks formed under his eyelids and it was then that Hope realized his father hadn't slept in a few days, for he spent most of his time crying his eyes out over his lost family.

Hope bit back tears. "Mom…..mom's gone." was all he could say.

Bartholomew's jaw dropped slightly as he pondered what was going on. It was only days ago that he learned that all of Bodhum was being Purged to Pulse. His wife and son had gone to Bodhum to enjoy the festival for a few days and now he was learning that he was never to see them again because the Sanctum decided they were a threat to Cocoon and tossed them onto a hellish world. It was then that Bartholomew Estheim quit his job working with the Sanctum and spent his days cooped up in his room crying as he looked at photographs of his lost family.

Now miraculously, as if the Maker answered his prayers his son was standing at the front door of his house, bruised and cut up, but alive and still in Cocoon. Bartholomew looked at Hope then averted his gaze to Lighting and Fang who were keeping Snow from collapsing on the ground. "Goodness, why don't you all come in?" he said. He had no idea who these people were, but if they had anything to do with helping his son get home then they were more than welcome in his residence.

Bartholomew Esthiem escorted Lightning, Fang and Snow into the guest bedroom and offered them whatever food he had remaining in the house. Since learning about the Purge he didn't even have the willpower to shop for food. The house would have been a disaster if it weren't for the expensive robotic cleaning equipment that skimmed the rug for dirt on its own. Hope focused on healing Snow's wounds. It took a long time and he was exhausted but Snow eventually began to come around. After Lighting had assured him that Snow would be okay with natural healing from that point on, he joined his father in his study and began to recount the entire story.

"The Sanctum lied" Hope stated as he finished telling his father about what happened to him. "The Purge was a cover-up to massacre everyone who lived in Bodhum."

Bartholomew began to cry again like he had done so much in the past few days.

Hope sat next to his father awkwardly. He had no idea what to say.

"I miss her," Bartholomew said between sobs.

"I….I know. I miss her too." Hope replied.

"But son, I'm grateful you are alive."

Hope cringed. "I'm only alive because the Pulse fal'Cie made me a l'Cie. Listen, once Snow is capable of moving we're leaving. We can't stay here, if they find out you're sheltering l'Cie, they'll kill you too."

"You're my son" Bartholomew said angrily. "I don't care what the Sanctum does. This is your home! I'm not in the league with the Sanctum any longer. Now please, just stay here a little longer."

Hope nodded slowly but began to open up to his father not just about what happened but he began explaining his companions and how great they had been. Like Snow, who had risked his life to save him when he didn't have to; and Lightning who escorted him to Palempolem and kept him safe all the way there Vanille who had proven to be an amazing friend and encouraged him to do what his heart felt was the best choice.

As Hope and his father began to heal the rifts between them Fang paced in the guest room while Lightning kept an eye on Snow to make sure he' wasn't slipping into a coma from the pain he was in. She turned on the television for noise, mostly to drown out Hope's conversation with his father that was taking place down the hall.

"You know," Fang said to Lightning. "Once I can send a transmission through to the Calvary to pick us up, we'll probably have to end up taking Mr. Estheim with us."

"Why?" Lightning questioned.

"It's only a matter of time before the Sanctum realizes that Bartholomew Estheim their ex-employee is the father of the one of the l'Cie they are after. They'll take him in for questioning and maybe even resort to torture for Hope's whereabouts." She stated. "At least we can keep him safe on the Calvary's ship."

"_The l'Cie continue their desperate flight and the military has issued an all-out campaign to eliminate them. Searches will begin immediately through houses in the residential district. In the event you must leave your home or your home is to be searched please follow the instructions given on this channel to make it a speedy and efficient process. The sanctum want's nothing more than the threat to be eliminated and for life to resume back to normal. You're cooperation is appreciated." _A voice announced from the television.

Fang sighed in frustration. "I need to get in contact with Raynes. They're still on our tail."

Snow groaned as he tried to get up from the bed he was laying in. His shirt had been removed and his chest was covered in gauze that had been wrapped tightly around it. Aside from being stiff and sore, the pain had vanished.

"Lay down!" Lightning commanded. "You'll hurt yourself if you keep moving."

This was the first time since Lake Bresha that Snow had been reunited with Lightning. He vaguely remembered her and Fang arriving before passing out from the pain, and now she sat in a chair next to his bed watching over him like a protective older sister. "I'm sorry" she said.

"Huh? What for?"

"Everything. For not wanting you to marry Serah, for not believing in you and Serah when she told me she was a l'Cie….for leaving you at Lake Bresha to die. Can you forgive me?"

Snow grinned. "I suppose…..only if you tell me your real name though."

Lightning matched his mischievous grin and whispered. "If you want to know that bad, then have Serah tell you when she comes back from crystal stasis."

"Deal."

They were so into their discussion that the three of them didn't even realize Hope had entered the room. "Hey, my dad wants to see you guys. He wants to talk with you."

Lightning nodded. "Sure, but we need to make it quick. Getting out of here fast is going to be our top priority."

Bartholomew Estheim sat in the living area and motioned for Hope's guests to take a seat when they emerged from the guest bedroom. While Hope, Fang and Lightning obeyed Snow got to the floor and bowed before Hope's father.

"The blame is mine sir. I'm so sorry. I couldn't save her" he began immediately.

A look of pain etched across Bartholomew's face. It was the pain of realization that someone who had aided in his wife's death was kneeling before him asking for forgiveness when he swore he'd never forgive anyone who was involved with her death.

Hope put his hand on his father's shoulder. "If it wasn't for Snow here, I would have died a long time ago."

After a moment Bartholomew said in barley a whisper. "Snow, did Nora say anything to you?"

He nodded. "She told me to bring Hope home." Hope nodded in agreement.

Bartholomew was silent but smiled softly. "And that's exactly what you've done. And for that I am greatful."

Snow let out a sigh of relief.

"You know" Bartholomew continued. "Face to face like this it's hard to believe you're dangerous fugitives. But the entire population of Cocoon is scared to death of you Pulse l'Cie and frankly I can't say why. You don't seem any less human than me. I suppose that's the fault of the Sanctum for feeding such fears. From my work in the Sanctum I've come to learn that the Sanctum is being controlled by the fal'Cie that protect Cocoon. The fal'Cie of Cocoon order it, and the Sanctum does as its told. Personally I believe that Pulse and its fal'Cie are harmless and the Cocoon fal'Cie are using the fear of Pulse to control everyone."

"So you believe that the real problem lies in the fal'Cie of Cocoon telling the Sanctum to kill us and not the fal'Cie of Pulse that are bent on destroying Cocoon?" Fang asked.

"It's a bit of both" Bartholomew answered. "If the fal'Cie of both Cocoon and Pulse could get along then maybe the fear of Pulse would dissipate too."

"Then it's simple" Snow stated. "We take down the Sanctum and the fal'Cie of Cocoon lose their puppet. If they don't have anyone to manipulate than the people can live their lives the way they want. We need to shift the power from the fal'Cie of Cocoon's hands back into the peoples."

Bartholomew looked taken aback but slightly impressed at the same time. "Are you sure you've thought that through?" he asked. "The Sanctum is very powerful and have many army divisions protecting them. Sanctum headquarters is located in the most advanced city in Cocoon and I can assure you that if you attack the Sanctum the fal'Cie that control them will lash back. Not only that, but if you do manage to take down the Sanctum people with loathe you even more for destroying the only thing stable in their lives."

Lightning nodded. "I agree. When the government falls apart, the citizens will revolt."

Fang rolled her eyes and sighed. "So what then? We just smile and take a bullet? These people want us dead, and while I care for some people who live here, the longer I stay on Cocoon the more I learn to dislike it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hope asked.

Lightning whispered "Fang is from Pulse…..and so is Vanille."

Hope was shocked to hear it, but somewhere inside he kind of figured it. Being around Vanille he got a strange vibe from her. It wasn't just because she was so perky and optimistic; it was because she had no fear of Pulse at all. And why should she if she was from Pulse.

"S…So Pulse is a livable place?" Hope stammered.

Fang rolled her eyes again. "It's called Gran Pulse, and yes it's livable. It's filled with cities and villages just like here. We have vast terrains, some filled with rock and grass, others with endless waves of sand. We have oceans, forest, jungles, caves and waterfalls. Gran Pulse is nothing like you've been taught. It's beautiful."

"All the more reason to cut the Sanctum down for telling lies" Snow interjected.

Lightning was barely listening to the conversation. Something was bugging her. It seemed too easy. Somehow all along the way the Sanctum was able to track her and Hope to Palumpolem. Each time they got closer and closer to catching them but they could never quite grasp them. Every fall, they survived; every search, they went undetected. Lightning used to work for the Sanctum in the Defense Corps and she knew that losing sight of fugitives as many times as they had been was unlike the army. PSICOM was supposed to be the Sanctum's trump card; the cream of the crop of soldiers and somehow they still couldn't catch them.

"Its too easy," she whispered.

"Excuse me?" Fang said.

"We never should have come here. I'm sorry Mr. Esthiem, but we have to go. They've been on our tails all along but haven't been able to catch us. Either they're planning something big or we're dealing with the stupidest army in the world, and I really don't think it's the latter." As if someone could answer her the electricity was cut to the house. Darkness shrouded them.

"Get down!" Lightning screamed as she pulled Fang to the floor. Bartholomew grabbed Hope, and he and Snow followed suit. No sooner had they taken cover a mixture of gunshots and shattering glass filled the air as the windows fell to pieces all over the living room floor.

Snow crawled to a window that was now shattered and peeked outside into the courtyard to survey just what it was they were dealing with. The entire courtyard was filled with armed PSICOM troops, and in the air were three rather large helicopters each with cannons extended and ready to fire. "They got the whole army here. They'll take down the whole building."

Fang was desperately trying to get a signal on her cellphone. "I have to get ahold of Raynes! They're jamming the connection."

Hope looked at Lightning, panic was stricken across his face. "This is it isn't it? There's no way to escape this one."

Lightning didn't want to confirm her own fear that they had finally been caught in the net. She weighed her options and found that even if they tried to escape the army probably had soldiers packed in the streets for a good couple of miles around the house. "We need to convince them we aren't a threat" was all she could say, "But even still, I don't think that will work."

Snow grabbed his white overcoat that was draped over the sofa. He put his back against a wall next to an open window and with a swift movement tossed the coat in front of the window and into the view or the army. Snow flinched as the sound of gunfire filled the air once again. "I don't think they're gonna listen sis." He waited until the gunfire ceased and yelled. "Don't shoot! I'll show you what a l'Cie looks like."

"Hold your fire." The voice of Commander Yaag Rosch of the PSICOM division called out. "Come out l'Cie, peacefully and no one innocent will have to die."

Snow motioned for Lightning and the others to stay put hidden in the shadows of the home and slowly walked in front of the windows and into the blinding lights coming from the helicopter spotlights. He squinted as he raised his hands above his head in surrender. "I am a l'Cie. I am flesh and blood like you. I am not a monster, just an ordinary citizen of Cocoon. Why do you think I'd want to destroy Cocoon, it's my home too. I want to protect it just as much as you do. I believe that was the focus I was given."

Whispers filled the courtyard as the soldiers contemplated what Snow had told them. If he really was given the focus to protect Cocoon from a Pulse fal'Cie wouldn't it mean that all this fear and anxiety they felt toward Pulse was pointless? For a moment Snow thought he had gotten through to them, but they refused to lower their weapons.

"You must be Snow Villers" Commander Rosch said softly. "I understand your plight… you do seem human enough to me, however the Pulse threat is not so easily dismissed. From dealing with other l'Cie, both for Pulse and Cocoon it is easy to misinterpret one's given focus. It has been written in the history books for decades that any person cursed as a Pulse l'Cie was given the focus to destroy Cocoon, why should yours be any different? Tell me, do you really believe that you're lives are more important than the millions of lives that you l'Cie are given the task to murder?"

Snow remained silent. He knew there would be no convincing the army. They were too enveloped in their fears to just think for a moment that anything from Pulse wasn't a threat.

"Sadly" Rosch continued. "It has fallen upon me to take care of your execution. You can view your lives as a sacrifice for the greater good of Cocoon."

"Cut the crap!" Snow hollered. "If you want to kill us, then just kill us. Why do other people have to die? Why do you have to murder innocent people just for being near us? Yes I said murder because that's what the Purge was, an excuse to murder."

For a moment Rosch flinched. "Do you think we really want to eliminate our own people? No! But without their sacrifice Cocoon will perish because it will be tainted. Now call out your friends and let us finish this."

The soldiers who were standing closest to Snow readied their weapons waiting for Rosch to give the command. Snow closed his eyes waiting for the end but as he did he heard Serah's voice whisper across his mind "_Don't worry, you are being protected."_

Suddenly smoke filled the air. Someone had activated a smoke bomb. In their confusion, the soldiers were taken off guard as Snow ran back into the house to take cover unsure of whether the smoke contained poisonous gas. Gunshots could be heard as a few of the soldiers turned on their own men and began to fire.

Chaos erupted in the courtyard as men fell lifeless on the ground, their blood staining the grass. Rosch, unsure of what had just happened looked for an explanation and was met with a soldier pointing a gun at him. No sooner had he realized that traitors were amongst them the soldier fired and Rosch felt the pain rip through his shoulder as he fell to the ground.

Inside the house, Fang was still trying to get a signal but she knew what was going on outside. "The Calvary's here." She stated.

Lightning nodded. "Hope, tie up your dad." She looked at Bartholomew and said "We tied you up, tortured you and forced you to help us, got it?"

"But I want to-"

"No!" Hope yelled. "I was dragged into this mess and it was my fault, not Snow's or Vanille's, it was me. I will not let you get dragged into this." He grabbed rope from a closet and proceeded to tie his father up. "I would love to stay here with you, but there's no place for a l'Cie. I'm going with the others, the Calvary will protect us."

Fang nodded. "We'll send a few Calvary members to become your bodyguards. The Sanctum isn't going to like that you helped us, even if the story goes that we forced you."

Hope continued. "I hate to run out on you like this, but I swear I will survive."

"You aren't running" Bartholomew whispered. "You're growing up. Now make your choices and do what needs to be done."

"You mean complete my focus?"

"Don't worry about that" Bartholomew pressed. "Do what you know is right. Go find the other l'Cie and survive. All of you need to survive."

Hope ran to his father and hugged him. This was the first time in a long while that Hope showed any kind of emotion toward his father. He remembered hating his dad for always being at work and running errands for the Sanctum but now, Hope had healed the rifts between them and he knew he would always have a home to return to. "Thanks dad" he said softly.

"We need to get going" Snow called as he put his coat back on. It was ripped to shreds from the bullets. "The Calvary stole a PSICOM ship and infiltrated them, and now if we don't go soon, our ride is going to leave us."

As if on cue, Cid Raynes' right hand man stepped through one of the broken windows with a grin and said "Hey, Fang. Thought you'd have trouble getting a hold of us so we just followed PSICOM. Those rats led us right to the cheese."

Fang scowled. "Don't get cute, you were almost a little too late."

Once they boarded the Calvary's ship, they were given their own separate room to wash up in but were called immediately to the bridge for a meeting. Cid casually introduced himself and asked how each one of them had been made a l'Cie. After their proper introductions, Fang cut in. "Now where?"

"Sazh and Vanille split up from us in the Vile peaks. They were supposed to go to Nautilus." Lightning answered.

"From what we've tracked, PSICOM has made no large scale movements in that direction, they've moved most of their army toward Palumpolem which tells me that they have no idea that two more l'Cie are on the loose." Raynes added.

"I doubt that" Lightning retorted. "We overheard some troops a while back, said their inside Intel was aware that we split up."

"What inside Intel?"

"Beats me" Lightning replied. "I never heard of any inside Intel when I worked for the Defense Corps at Bodhum."

"Then we best get a move on," Fang interjected. "The sooner we pick those two up, the sooner we can figure out what to do next. We can't sit around and wait for the army to change their mind and go after those two instead of chasing us around."

"Fine" Raines sighed. "To Nautilus then."


	11. Chapter 10: Nautilus, the City of Dreams

Chapter 10

Nautilus the city of dreams

Vanille stepped from the ferry boat that had taken them to the city and stretched her legs with a sigh of relief. The ride had taken most of the day to get there and the sun was setting over the city when they arrived. However it was surprisingly bright when they arrived. Nautilus as it turned out was just starting most of their larger attractions and as the city never slept, the streets were lined with lights that flashed in every color imaginable.

Vanille looked off into the distance as if lost in her own thoughts. It was Sazh who pulled her back into reality. "You seasick or something?"

"Huh? Oh, no I'm fine. I've just never seen a place like this before." She replied.

"Never been to Nautilus? Well I suppose there's a first time for everything."

She nodded with a smile as she followed him off the docks but she pondered silently if she should tell Sazh the truth. She had been thinking about it the whole trip, but couldn't bring herself to do it. How could she tell a man who hated all things Pulse that she was born there, lived there for most of her life, and was looking for her best friend who was also from Pulse? She had tried to do so many times but every time she built the courage to tell him he would say something like "Pulse is a vile place that breeds monsters and hatred." Or "When I find out why Dajh was turned into a l'Cie I will kill whoever is responsible."

Vanille bit back her words. How could she possibly tell him that because she and her best friend Fang woke up from crystal stasis in the Vestige that this whole mess started? She was responsible for Dajh and Sazh becoming l'Cie. She was afraid of causing Sazh more pain than he was already in. So she stayed quiet. Perhaps when she was with Lightning and Hope she could speak up, but her own advice haunted her. She remembered telling Hope how important it was to talk to Snow, so why couldn't she talk to Sazh?

"You know," Sazh said suddenly. "There isn't a lot of security around here. The people are very relaxed too. The l'Cie panic must be a world away to these people."

Vanille nodded but stopped to look at a large screen overhead that announced a parade that would be starting in a few moments.

"Ah, looks like they're putting Eidolons on parade tonight." Sazh announced.

"Eidolons?" Vanille questioned.

"Yeah, the mythical beings granted to l'Cie for help in completing their focus. It's just a legend though. I would love some help from an Eidolon to survive" Sazh answered

Vanille smiled and nodded again. She knew what an Eidolon was, and she knew they were real. Though she had never used one herself, she heard of stories from the village soothsayer on Gran Pulse about previous l'Cie using them to attain their focus. "Let's go check it out."

They were about to head over to where the screen directed when the image changed. Vanille paused to see what was going on. It was a news cast with the familiar sight of the Bodhum Vestige on the screen. "We interrupt this program to bring you an urgent update." The image changed again from the Vestige to a recording of Lightning and Hope surrounded in an arena. "The l'Cie that surfaced in Palumpolem earlier today are still on the run from authorities."

Vanille and Sazh gasped as they saw their companions. Both fear and relief coursed through them at the same time. Fear because they had been nearly caught relief because they hadn't.

The reporter continued as the scene changed from Lightning and Hope to Snow and Fang on a motor bike. "Sanctum soldiers are tracking their location but have yet to find the fugitives. Palumpolem will be placed into lockdown until the fugitives are captured and eliminated."

Vanille let out a soft cry. Her eyes wide with confusion and amazement.

"What's wrong?" Sazh questioned.

"It's her."

Sazh nodded. "Yeah. Looks like the army found them" he placed his hand on her shoulder and whispered in her ear. "Don't worry, Lightning will be okay."

Vanille nodded sadly. She was upset because she wasn't referring to Lightning; she was referring to Fang, her best friend, her sister and her only companion in this world who didn't hate Gran Pulse. They had gotten separated about ten days ago, and after that the Pulse panic began. She thought she'd never see Fang again, yet there she was saving the day, just like she always did.

Sensing Vanille's sorrow Sazh pulled her away from the screen. "Come on, the parade is about to begin." Reluctantly she followed him.

They stood in the arena as instructed as the sky lit up with a mixture of lights and fireworks. The parade was a narrative of what happened during the war between Cocoon and Gran Pulse hundreds of years ago. Vanille knew the story to the extent of understanding it from Pulse's side, but now she was going to get a chance to see Cocoon's side of the story.

She watched in fascination as the Shiva sisters danced around the sky representing the population of Cocoon living in peace and prosperity. She watched even more intently how Shiva faded into the background as the eidolon Ifrit arose being controlled by a Pulse l'Cie swearing vengeance and destruction on Cocoon.

Shiva and Ifrit battled each other in a complex array of dance moves across the open air above them. Both of them equally as strong one never seeming to hurt the other. Vanille noted it was exactly like it was today. Both Gran Pulse and Cocoon were equal and neither seemed to hurt one another but both lived in fear that one day they would.

However, after dancing through the air Shiva began to weaken, her Ice was being melted by the intense heat of Ifrit. Shiva was losing, Cocoon was losing. When all hope seemed lost for Cocoon a Cocoon l'Cie appeared defending Cocoon and it's fal'Cie. The Cocoon l'Cie was strong and had a will of iron. He was able to hold back Ifrit and the anger of Pulse however the Pulse l'Cie swore to fulfill his focus and with a mighty shockwave Ifrit and the l'Cie merged forming a monstrous dragon like form that swooped over the crowd's heads.

"It's Ragnarok" Vanille cried in fear.

Ragnarok flew up to Cocoon ready to destroy it but the little Cocoon l'Cie ready to die for its home was willing to fulfill his focus too and so he held back Ragnarok's attack. There was large explosion and the air around them cleared. All that remained was an image of Cocoon still floating in the space above Pulse, it's shell had a piece missing. The Cocoon l'Cie had managed to save his home but not from all damage.

Vanille stood there in amazement realizing how different the story she had known was compared to what she about it brought back memories of home and how much she missed Gran Pulse. She couldn't help but let a single tear slide down her cheek as she looked away from Sazh. She wondered just who's side of the story was correct, but even then deep down she knew what had happened and who had been lying.

"So what next?" Sazh asked as the arena cleared out.

Vanille quickly dried her eyes and smoothed her skirts making sure her brand wasn't showing. "I'll let you decide." She forced her self to smile and feel cheerful when so much was going wrong. Sure they were free from the grasp of the army and not running for their lives, but Fang, Lightning and the others were in danger while they were playing around in an amusement park. Plus she knew she had to tell Sazh what happened, eventually he'd find out and she wanted the story to come from her rather than a stranger. Maybe that way he'd understand.

"I know, how about we go and see the Chocobo's at the park." He suggested. "I think you'd like that."

She sighed. "Should we really be playing around like this?"

"What else can we do? We're too far away to help them, plus we need to keep a low profile and blend in. Two people moping around in a bustling city like this is not blending in."

She forced another smile and nodded. "Okay then, let's go!" She followed behind him. "You seem to know you're way around. Have you been here before?"

"I've been here plenty of times with my folks when I was little. I promised Dajh I'd bring him some day." Sazh explained. "I hope I can at least tell him about this place one day."

Vanille cursed under her breath. Why was everything he said about Dajh now! She got the point. She knew he missed his son and was eager to find who forced the fal'Cie to turn his son into a l'Cie. Now it seemed like she'd opened a can of worms when she asked him about his family. Everything that came out of his mouth was about hating Pulse or missing Dajh.

"What about you?" Sazh asked. "You've been grilling me about my family. Where's your family?"

She hesitated but said "My parents are dead, and I am an only child." It wasn't exactly a lie. She and Fang figured they had been in crystal stasis for hundreds of years before waking up, so her parents should be dead.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."

She smiled "Its okay. Besides, I brought up bad memories for you, so it's only fair."

He couldn't hold back his own grin. It was as if being around her was infectious. "How about someone special?"

She shook her head. "Nope! If you're talking about a boyfriend that is. I've never really had a boyfriend. But I do have a best friend. Once this calms down I am going to find her."

"Good for you!" Sazh cheered. "Now we both have something to look forward to after this mess clears up. Ah, here we go."

They had arrived at the park's gate. Just behind it, Vanille saw muscular yellow feathered Chocobos munching on patches of grass or chasing each other around. She couldn't help but burst into a fit of giggles. Finally somewhere on Cocoon where she could just be herself and let her guard down. Chocobo's wouldn't judge her for being from Pulse.

She followed Sazh through the park as he recounted his childhood trips to Nautius and how much Dajh would love to have been there. The chocobo chick that Sazh had been carrying around popped its head out from Sazh's massive hair and twittered to the fellow birds of his breed.

Out of nowhere Sazh turned to Vanille and said "Thanks"

"What for?"

"For everything. For keeping things bright and optimistic when I know I can be the biggest downer, and for reminding me that I need to live long enough to see my son again."

Vanille's smile faded.

"He's being held by the military; by PSICOM. They're running tests to try and figure out his focus. I've been thinking a lot since you made me realize just how important seeing my son is."

"What are you saying?" Vanille asked, worry was starting to etch across her face.

"I've made up my mind, I'm going to turn myself in." He stated.

Vanille gasped. "No! You can't they-"

"I know. I know they'll execute me, but they aren't total monsters. They'll grant one last request." Sazh admitted. "We'll be running the rest of our lives. It will only be a matter of time before they move on to searching for us. Our future is grim, either we die, turn into a Cie'th or turn into a statue. I just want to make sure I can talk to my son one more time before it ends."

"Sazh no!" Vanille pleaded. "You need to believe that you can wake up from the crystal sleep. You need to believe that Serah will wake up one day and once Dajh completes his focus he too will wake up. You can't give up like this, you need to fight to live."

"Vanille, please…..let me do this. You really don't think that waking up from being turned into crystal is possible do you?" Sazh replied.

"But I do. I do believe it because….because…." She was on the verge of telling him everything.

Sazh sighed and gripped her shoulders. "You have no part in this. You'll have plenty of time to run away before I turn myself in. I know you'll be fine, that optimism is keeping you alive you know. Go find your friend and live as happy a life as you can." He let her go and began to walk down a path that lead to a customer relations desk toward the front of the park.

Sazh was slipping away, and Vanille couldn't stop it. She didn't know what to do. She had barely kept herself hidden when she and Fang had gotten separated, there was no way that she could survive running by herself. The same fear that came to her when she thought Sazh had left her in the waterscape arose in her chest. Panic gripped her. "Wait!" she screamed in desperation. "I know who's responsible. I know why your son was made a l'Cie."

"What?" Sazh rushed back to her and grabbed her shoulders again. He shook her hard. How could she have kept something like this from him? "Tell me! Who is responsible for it?"

She built up every bit of courage that she could muster and prepared herself to tell Sazh everything. "It was-"

But she was cut off, the sound of gunfire echoed through the park. Soldiers who had been hidden in the brush around them had guns pointed to their bodies.

"Soldiers?" Sazh cried. "Where'd they come from?" He grabbed Vanille's arm and ran as fast as he could through the park. Any thought of surrendering himself had vanished. He had newfound hope that he could get revenge on whoever ruined his son's life and that was enough to motivate him to keep running. Besides, the way those soldiers shot with no hesitation made him wonder if the army would even let him talk to their precious Cocoon l'Cie. All he could do was protect Vanille and survive, so that's exactly what he did.


	12. Chapter 11: No Place Left to Run

Chapter 11

No place left to run

Sazh had no idea how the army had found them. They came the whole way without being chased by troops. He had thought for sure that they had entered the city undetected. So why now? Why did PSICOM decide to show themselves?

It had been a while since they heard gunfire and no alarm had been sounded to search for rogue l'Cie, so Sazh slowed down to catch his breath. He had been running off of pure adrenaline and he knew his body was going to crash if he didn't take a rest. Sazh looked around at his surroundings. He knew the best move was to get out of the Chocobo park as fast as possible so he dragged Vanille with him keeping to the shadows.

It seemed he had chosen the courtyard near Nautilus's famous clock tower to take a rest in. This part of the amusement park was closed at this hour so at least civilians wouldn't get caught in the way, but at the same time it would be easy to spot them. They were wandering around a place where no one should be. Sazh took a seat on the ground in the shadow of a tree in the courtyard while Vanille kept look out.

They had been sitting for quite a few minutes in silence. Sazh wanted to know what Vanille had kept from him but at the same time he knew this wasn't the time or place. Their first priority was to run. As he pondered what to do next and where they could possibly run now that the army knew they were gutsy enough to enter cities the chocobo chick popped out of his hair once again and fluttered around the courtyard twittering loudly.

Sazh was about to demand that the bird come back when he heard footsteps.

"_Aready?"_ he thought. He pulled Vanille back into the shadows and motioned for her to stay quiet. Slowly he took out a gun from one of the holsters on his leg. Silently he stepped into the courtyard with the gun raised ready to strike whoever was following them.

"Daddy! I found you!" a young voice cried.

Instantly Sazh dropped his gun to the ground when he saw his son step into the courtyard with a huge grin on his face. He pointed at his father as if he had just won a game of hide and seek.

Dajh ran across the courtyard to his father barely managing not to trip over his baggy pair of overalls. When he reached his father he hugged him as tight as he possibly could.

Vanille who was still trying to process what was going on gasped.

"I got you daddy" Dajh exclaimed.

Sazh was in a state of shock. "Dajh, why are you here?"

"You promised to take me here"

"But…how did you get here?" Sazh continued to question. He knelt to his son and looked into his eyes. He tried to fight back the tears but no sooner had he let go of Dajh a bright light engulfed the little boy and forced Sazh to the ground. Vanille ran to help Sazh up pleading silently that she was wrong about what had just happened.

When the light faded, Vanille realized she had indeed been correct. Dajh's body was encased in crystal. The boy was frozen in the crystal with a grin on his face, the type of grin a little boy should have when his father comes home after a long vacation. She snuck a peek at Sazh and her heart felt as if it were ripped in two.

"Dajh no! Come back" Sazh screamed.

"I see now" a feminine voice called out through the darkness. A woman stepped into the courtyard to join them. Armed PSICOM soldiers flanked her at either side, their guns pointed at the cursed l'Cie. Upon closer inspection Sazh saw this as Jhil Nabaat, the woman who took Dajh into custody after he was made a Cocoon l'Cie. She was a tall built woman with eyes of ice blue and a mane of flowing blonde hair. The spectacles she wore on the bridge of her nose gave her an air of intellect and superiority. She wore the uniform of a PSICOM commander. "To search out and locate undesirables until their capture" she continued. "That was Dajh's focus."

Sazh gasped. His own son's focus was to hunt down his father. He was starting to realize just how twisted and cruel fate could be.

Jhil paced. "And he did so honorably while serving Cocoon in the process. You should be proud of him Mr. Katzroy. He allowed us to track your every move. The moment your team split up we split the army up as well. My not so tactful partner Rosch insisted on trying to capture the two l'Cie that went to Palumpolem as soon as possible. I however waited until you arrived here like Dajh said you would. I figured letting you come here on your own time would allow you to drop your guard, and it seems I was right."

Vanille clenched her fists in anger. She was disgusted that the Sanctum would use an innocent boy to hunt down his father to murder him.

"We cannot express our gratitude to your son, Sazh Katzroy. We will make a monument in his honor so that all of Cocoon will know that he has saved them. He's a hero." Jhil cooed. "and speaking of gratitude…" she pulled out a thin computer and tossed it to Sazh. "There's recordings of the security tape from the Euride Gorge there. The picture is a bit grainy but I think you'll find it interesting nonetheless."

When the computer clattered to the ground in front of Sazh it produced a holographic image that danced before him. While Sazh's mind was still on his son who was trapped in crystal, he was still curious to find out what exactly had happened the day his son became a l'Cie, so he watched.

The familiar view of the observation deck that overlooked the top of the volcano at the Euride Gorge flickered into view. This was the room that Sazh had found his son, branded a l'Cie after Dajh had ran off. Jhil had said that this video contained the moments that changed Sazh's life so he watched with such intensity he refused to blink.

Two figures stood on the observation deck, but his son was nowhere to be found. He was about to dismiss their importance in the recording when one of the figures caught his eye. She was petite, young and had very distinguishable orange pigtails. Vanille stood on the observation deck next to an older woman, who had a tall muscular frame. She wore a vibrant blue sari and her hair was bushy and unkempt.

"Fang, let's just go." Vanille said "What does our focus even matter?"

The woman named Fang scowled at her "What's it matter?" she repeated. "You wanna be a monster?"

"No but, I just don't want to-"

Fang cut her off and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Keep your chin up, We may not remember our focus, but at least we can be safe to say it has something to do with destroying Cocoon. If you ask me, we play the part and raise some hell. It might jumpstart our memories."

Vanille looked horrified. "What?"

"The fal'Cie….lets smash it" Fang replied as she gestured to the fal'Cie named Kujata that sat atop the volcano and converted the heat and natural gasses into fuel and electricity that powered Cocoon. It was almost spiderlike in shape. Its body was held over the opening to the volcano while eight legs connected to the rim.

Fang unhooked the lance that was strapped to her back in one swift motion and prepared herself to fight the massive fal'Cie before them.

Vanille hesitated. She didn't want to fight this fal'Cie and she didn't want to destroy Cocoon. There was too many good people here that she met that made her question the stories she was taught that Cocoon was a nest of vipers.

"Hello" a voice called out. "Who are you?"

The two of them turned to see a young boy with dark skin and dark hair standing before them. Dajh grinned and waved at them. He was about to ask them more questions like why they were talking in such a funny voice and why they were wearing funny clothing when the observation deck began to shake. Fang turned back on Kujata to see that it had become active and was ready to strike back at the enemy l'Cie. Lava spewed from either side of it as its dark eyes lit up a blood red.

Dajh cried out for his father as a glowing blue mark appeared on his hand. The mark of a Cocoon l'Cie. It was different than a Pulse l'Cie brand, it was thinner and almost hourglass like in shape. As the shaking continued the image began to lose focus and eventually went dark. Sazh didn't need to know the rest, he had witnessed it himself.

The holographic image went dark and Sazh was left sitting on the ground feeling anger bubble up inside him. "Vanille" was all he could say through clenched teeth.

Vanille who was forced to witness her sin all over again stood there crying. Her tear streamed down her face, one after another, seeming like they would never stop. She kept telling herself that this wouldn't have been so bad if she had just told him the truth earlier. Why hadn't she had the courage to tell them?

"Yes" Jhil purred. "That young lady's terrorist assault on the Euride Gorge was the reason your son became a l'Cie. Ironic isn't it, the very girl you've been traveling with and protecting is the one who stole your son."

"No!" Vanille cried. "I didn't mean to….it wasn't supposed to turn out like that." Before Sazh could answer her she ran away as fast as she could trying so hard to wipe the tears out of her eyes. She ran through a door at the base of the clock tower not caring where it led or where she was going. The only thing that mattered was getting away so that she could have time to think about what she had done and how she could atone for it.

A soldier raised his gun and pointed it at Vanille as she ran but Jhil held her hand out and said "Hold." She smirked at Sazh and said "Shall we finish the job, or would you prefer to?"

Sazh didn't even stop to think about the situation. He picked up the gun he had dropped to the ground and ran after Vanille letting his anger build at every thought and memory of his son. Vanille would pay! Then Sazh would ask to help the army hunt down the woman named Fang and he would make her pay too. After those two had their blood spilt for their sins the army could do with him what they pleased, for after that, Sazh would have nothing left to live for.

Vanille finally stopped running. She had ran into the clock tower and up a long pair of stairs realizing only when she reached the top, in a long outdoor bridge like area that connected the clock tower to another building off into the distance, that she realized it was pointless to run. She was only holding off the inevitable. She should have told Sazh the truth and maybe he would have understood, but now, hearing it from PSICOM made it sound like she was a vicious liar.

Between gasping for air and trying to stop her sobs, Vanille was starting to hallucinate. She was hearing Sazh's voice in her head passing his judgment down on her. "_You are cold blooded, lying to people so that they would trust you and then using them as your personal shield to keep you safe and alive. You are a coward and a killer. The people you use don't get to live, so why should you."_

Hearing this only made her collapse to the ground and cry even harder. She wished Fang were here, Fang would protect her. Then she realized, she was done being useless. She was done following people around and hoping they would protect her. She needed to learn to start protecting herself if she lived past tonight.

The sound of Sazh trying to catch his breath joined with her sobs. She looked at him slowly from the ground, pain etched in her eyes filled with pleading for his forgiveness. He had caught up with her and unfortunately he didn't look very forgiving. He clenched his chest where his brand was located as he struggled to say "Vanille" Slowly he pointed his gun to her.

Closing her eyes and wiping her tears away yet again, she took a deep breath and slowly got to her feet to face him. She remembered the promise she made to herself just seconds before. No more lying; no more cowardice; no more running. She faced him and slowly opened her eyes as she stretched her arms out to either side of him showing she wasn't going to attack and he had a free target.

"My name is Oerba Dia Vanille. I am a l'Cie from Gran Pulse, and to everyone here on Cocoon…evil" She announced. "Go on, shoot me…for your son!"

"Don't you even-"Sazh screamed at her. She flinched. "You think you die and that's that? You think you die and everything will be sugar and rainbows?"

"Then what can I do?" Vanille pleaded. "What do you want from me? If I can't live or die, what else can I do?"

"Don't ask me" Sazh snapped. "You figure it out. You caused this mess you should clean it up."

Vanille let fresh tears stream down her eyes again. "I don't know! I've been trying to figure it out since I was branded hundreds of years ago."

Sazh hesitated and slowly lowered his gun. At hearing Vanille had been branded for that long, even though he had no clue how she could have lived that long, meant she had been going through hundreds of years of pain and torture and at that moment it made him seem like his problems were miniscule. "Neither do I. It's over. There's nothing to do. Killing you won't help but keeping you alive won't solve this either. The army has caught us…it's over."

The pain in his chest was increasing to the point where he couldn't breathe. He gripped at his brand hoping the intense pain would stop, but instead it only grew worse as he collapsed to the ground. His brand began to pulse a deep red that slowly enveloped him. In a bright flash Sazh was knocked off his feet and across the bridge as a huge form descended from the clouds in a fiery flash of light. Waves of heat crashed upon Sazh and Vanille.

The figure was made of metal the color of molten lava. It stood on six long legs that allowed its body to be lifted high off the ground. Its' face looked human but had eyes of glowing red and its arms were long guns. It looked at Sazh and raised a gun arm to him ready to fire.

"If you're here to kill me, do your worst" Sazh screamed. He had never believed the Eidolon stories were true, though at this point he should have after all of the other l'Cie legends turning out to be true as well.

Vanille ran in front of him as he struggled to get to his feet. She held out her arms protectively. She was finished letting other people protect her, this time it was her turn to protect Sazh. "It's not over! You can't give up and die"

The creature took an arm and swung it at Vanille. She went flying across the bridge like a ragdoll hitting the high stone walls. She felt a sickening crack in her arm as waves of nausea washed over her as she fought to stay conscious. Her body was bruised and scratched already from the harsh travel they had been on. She had little food to eat and knew that she wouldn't be able to fight for much longer.

The creature raised its gun arm again at Sazh ready to fire when Vanille forced herself up and ran back in front of him. This time she pulled out the fishing rod she had attached to the back of her bearskin skirt ready to strike. Again the creature swung at her knocking her out of the way. She rolled across the stone ground as her arm began to bleed from a gash where the creature's metal body came in contact with her.

Adrenaline was powering her body now as she stood up again and staggered back to the creature placing herself between it and her companion. She could barely hold herself up. This time the Eidolon pointed its gun arm at her ready to shoot her and get her out of the way of it's real opponent. She closed her eyes and waited for the bullets.

Gunfire filled the air, but Vanille felt no more pain than what she was already in. The gunfire continued, and she realized it was louder than she expected. She slowly opened her eyes to see that Sazh was shooting the Eidolon with his own weapon over Vanille's shoulder.

"Leave her alone!" Sazh said. "Only I can carry out judgment upon her."

Slowly the creature lowered its arm and spoke in a deep voice. "I am Brynhildr. I am the Eidolon the fal'Cie have granted you for help on your quest to fulfill your focus. You called out to me in this time of need and I have answered."

"I called no such Eidolon" Sazh answered, his gun still raised.

"But you did. Your heart called out for reason to keep this girl alive. Your anger for her is causing you to lose your way. l'Cie do not kill each other and you were searching for a reason not to end her life. She has proven herself willing to die to protect you."

Sazh remained silent, partially because he knew it was true and partially because he believed arguing with an Eidolon wasn't a smart idea.

"I must leave you now, but I will always be with you and answer your call. Now go chosen l'Cie and fulfill your focus." Brynhilder said as the Eidolon burst into flames and vanished from the bridge.

Vanille gripped her arm in pain as she looked at Sazh expectantly. Her breathing was heavy and labored as she tried her hardest to stay conscious.

Sazh slowly pointed his gun to her again. "Like I will do anything an Eidolon or a fal'Cie tell me"

She gasped and backed up instinctively until her back was against the wall. When she realized she couldn't run anymore she stood still and smiled nodding to him, assuring him it was okay to shoot her if it would heal the wounds in his heart.

"Vanille, a lot of things can be excused…." He whispered. "But shooting kids…that ain't one of them" He lowered his gun and walked away.

She collapsed to the ground as fresh tears flowed from her eyes. She half wondered if it was possible to cry yourself to death. In that one moment Sazh had forgiven her. The chocobo chick living in Sazh's hair flew over to her and twittered happily.

Slowly Sazh lifted the gun to his own head. Vanille looked at him ready to thank him for his rare kindness and gasped. "No!" she cried.

"Enough….is enough" Sazh announced and before he could think about changing his mind he pulled the trigger. Vanille turned her eyes away seconds before the sound of gunfire filled the air around them.

The rest of what had happened that night was a blur to her. The adrenaline rush she had been working off of had long since faded and exhaustion set in and she could hardly remember what had happened after Sazh had pulled the trigger. She vaguely remembered screaming over and over until her lungs felt like they would collapse on her. She remembered PSICOM filling the bridge from both ends, guns pointed at her. She remembered being bound up and forced to wear the same type of robe that she wore on the Purge train. She remembered being forced onto a PSICOM ship with a coffin like case carrying Sazh being carried behind her…..and finally she remembered the peaceful sleep that overtook her as she cried herself to sleep in the cold dark room they had tossed her in. The last thing she thought was that they would kill her swiftly and she hoped that her death would bring peace back to this twisted world.


	13. Chapter 12: The Will to Fight

Chapter 12

The Will to Fight

Three days had passed since Lighting, Snow, Fang and Hope narrowly escaped execution in Palumpolem. They immediately set a course for Nautilus which would have taken a matter of hours to reach if they flew as fast as the ship could take them. However they were shocked to find the airspace around Nautilus filled with PSICOM ships. Raynes immediately ordered his research team to start hacking the Sanctum's database and find out what the commotion was.

Lightning silently prayed that Sazh and Vanille were okay, though at this point things were looking grim. She should have figured that the Sanctum would have sent pursuit after those two as well once they realized the dreaded l'Cie split up. Now coincidentally, the Sanctum sky fleet hovered over the very city that Sazh and Vanille ventured towards.

It was confirmed almost immediately by the research hackers that PSICOM had tracked down and imprisoned two fugitive l'Cie in Nautilus fitting the descriptions of Sazh and Vanille. One of the hackers also decoded a rather surprising message that was sent from a Commander Jhil Nabaat to a Commander Yaag Rosch stating "_we captured two l'Cie, however due to one of their unexpected behaviors, we have decided to hold them captive and have the Primarch decide how to handle them." _

"What is that supposed to mean?" Snow asked.

"It means that they want to wait until all the l'Cie are captured and have a mass execution at once." Lightning replied. "Besides I'm sure they'll get a ton of data from observing the enemy l'Cie."

"So what do you suppose we do?" Hope questioned.

"We wait" was Lightings answer.

So that is exactly what they did. Each of them tried to find things they could busy themselves in until more information was found out about what happened at Nautilus. Lighting and Hope spent most of their time in an empty hangar of the ship using it as a practice room. Lightning was teaching Hope the dynamics of sword fighting and better tips and tricks to using a handheld knife. Snow stayed glued to Serah's side in the research wing where Calvary scientists worked relentlessly to find a way to make her awaken. Fang worked with Raynes to find a way to tap into the Sanctum's headquarters but found that security had been tripled after Sazh and Vanille's capture.

They only saw each other for meals and quick debriefing meetings and during those times not a single word was breathed about Sazh or Vanille. It was if everyone was holding their breaths waiting, hoping that the Sanctum hadn't changed their minds and just killed them anyway. It was on the third day of this torture that a public announcement was made over the news. Everyone eagerly gathered on the hangar of the Lindblum to see just what it was going to take to save their friends.

"The Palamecia is the headquarters for the Sanctum sky fleet and is currently serving as a prison for the l'Cie that were apprehended in Nautilus." A reporter announced. "The l'Cie will face official sentencing upon the convoy's arrival in the capital city of Eden. In a heroic display of unwavering dedication to duty Primarch Dysley himself has boarded the Palamecia and has focused all his efforts into putting a halt to the Pulse-panic."

Fang sneered. "They're baiting us; trying to draw us out."

Lightning nodded. "Yeah it's like they're saying 'here are your friends, come and get them'"

Snow grinned. "Well then, if they're daring us to mount a rescue party, then why don't we just take them up on that offer?"

Fang smirked at him. "I like that attitude. It's time I finally find Vanille, just like I promised her."

"I'm in too" Hope interjected, "But how are we going to get on board without PSICOM noticing?"

Raynes pointed to a dark vessel sitting at the back of the hangar. "The miniature PSICOM vessel that we stole from them during the rescue at Palempolem. Don't worry, we've reformatted the whole thing, so they'll never be able to register it as the stolen ship."

"And we're supposed to take them all on" Lightning questioned, an eyebrow raised. "I think they may have the whole division on board."

"Who cares" Fang spat. "They've got Vanille on board and I'm gonna break her free from there." Without a word she boarded the ship and readied it for takeoff. The only thing on her mind was saving her best friend and getting her home to Gran Pulse.

Vanille was dreaming. She was dreaming of the beautiful city of Nautilus and how happy a place it seemed to be, with bright lights and smiling faces. The warm feeling it evoked within her was very reminiscent of the feeling she had being around her family back on Gran Pulse. The thought of it brought a smile to her lips. But as she wandered the amusement park streets, the lights dimmed to a deep red color and she saw Sazh standing in front of her; gun pressed to his temple ready to pull the trigger. No matter how hard she screamed for him to stop, he didn't hear her and pulled it anyway. The splatter of blood showered down on her staining her creamy skin and orange skirts. She screamed.

She screamed so loud that she woke herself up from the nightmare she had been living. The room was dark and she could feel the metal floor beneath her but she didn't stop screaming and the tears began to roll down her cheeks once more. It was only when a warm hand was placed upon her shoulder did she slow her sobbing.

"Vanille" Sazh whispered. "It was just a dream, snap out of it."

She looked at him as her chest heaved. "I know…but it seemed so real. I saw you shoot yourself and your blood it was-"

"Vanille calm down. I didn't shoot myself. It's just your mind warping what happened that night that's all." Sazh assured her.

She wiped her eyes and looked at him as the memories of that night came back clear as day. After being so exhausted that night she could barely remember what had happened. Jhil had told Sazh about why Dajh became a l'Cie. Sazh went to kill Vanille himself but found he didn't have the heart to, so he raised the gun to his head. When Vanille heard the gunshot she instinctively turned away and closed her eyes.

However she never heard Sazh's lifeless body crash to the ground so slowly she peeked her eyes open and saw her companion still standing before her, gun pointed at the sky, its tip smoking from the gunshot that happened just moments before. In an instant he collapsed to the ground in exhaustion not caring what would happen next. Vanille wanted to wake him up and find a way to escape but before she could get up from the ground PSICOM soldiers had surrounded them and they were both taken prisoner. Vanille in a Purge robe and Sazh in a coffin like carrying case that ensured that no one would be tainted by Pulse that way.

They were tossed into a dimly lit room made of metal. This would be their prison for three long and painful days. They were fed a slice of bread and a glass of water every day and were forced to sleep on the metal floors. While no one even bothered to check on them except to deliver mealtimes the room was silent. Sazh only spoke when he found it absolutely necessary to, and so the two of them sat silently in their prison waiting for their sentence.

Sazh's comforting words now was the first time he had actually held a decent conversation with her since they had been thrown on the ship. Though he said he had forgiven her, his actions up until this point hardly spoke for him.

After Vanille calmed down he whispered. "I'm pathetic you know."

She shook her head viciously. "No. That's my line. I'm the one who lied to everyone."

"Forget it, you can't change what's done. I'm sick of playing the blame game. The only ones responsible for this mess are the fal'Cie and the Sanctum. If the fal'Cie from Pulse and Cocoon would stop hating each other they wouldn't need to brand humans….and if the Sanctum quit filling people's heads with lies…."

"Lies?" Vanille questioned.

"After being told time after time that Pulse is a world of hell and brimstone that breeds only monsters and uncivilized people, I have to assume that the Sanctum has been lying to us" Sazh added. "Because you don't seem like a monster at all."

"Thank you"

Sazh continued. "Besides, I've been thinking. You woke up from a being a crystal once right? That means Dajh will too one day."

She nodded.

"What was it like? I mean how exactly did it happen, you completed your focus right?"

Vanille made herself comfortable on the ground she was going to tell her side of the story without it being tainted by what the Sanctum said. "I was chosen to be a l'Cie to fight against Cocoon…it happened hundreds of years ago on Gran Pulse. There were two of us, me and the other woman on the video, my best friend Fang. We completed our focus and fell into a long crystal sleep….."

"What did it feel like? Sleeping for hundreds of years I mean." Sazh questioned with wide eyes.

She shrugged. "Like normal sleep, except you can sleep for hundreds of years because the crystal preserves your mind and body." She continued after Sazh nodded. "When we awoke, we were on Cocoon in the Vestige at Bodhum and we had a new focus. Except well, Fang, she'd forgotten everything that revolved around our previous focus. I couldn't hurt people again, I couldn't hurt Cocoon or Fang so I lied."

"You lied about remembering your focus on Pulse?" Sazh stated in a shocked voice.

"Gran Pulse" Vanille corrected "And yes, I played dumb and said I lost my memory too. I wanted to escape my fate as a l'Cie. I ran from it, and as a result the fal'Cie that awoke within the Vestige with us called out for more people to become it's l'Cie. That's how Serah was branded."

"Wow. So you weren't kidding when you said you caused this mess huh?"

Vanille glared at him.

"Sorry."

She was about to laugh it all off when the sound of an alarm cut through the air. The dim lighting went from radiating a dingy green color to a bright red. Vanille looked to Sazh and her gaze was met with a huge grin. A voice overhead called "_Code Green. Enemy forces have been detected. I repeat code green."_

"I'd hate to get your hopes up if I'm wrong, but I have a feeling our rescue has just arrived."

No sooner had Sazh got the words out of his mouth the door to their prison cell flew open with a clang and bright light flooded from the corridor outside. Vanille instinctively shielded her eyes. A single soldier entered the room holding a gun ready to fire. "Get up, You're being moved." When neither of them made a move to obey, the soldier grabbed Vanille's arm and dragged her to her feet. "I said move bitch!"

Unknowingly the soldier had made a mistake. He had taken his eyes off of the other l'Cie prisoner in the room to focus on Vanille. Sazh used this opportunity to ram his entire body weight into the unsuspecting soldier causing him to lose his grip on Vanille and drop his gun at the same time. Thinking only on instinct Vanille grabbed the gun that clattered to the ground and in a swift movement pointed it to the PSICOM soldier and pulled the trigger.

Vanille had never murdered another human being before and hoped she would never have to. Shooting someone in front of her she reasoned had to be the worst way to commit the act. She saw the soldiers anguish and heard his pain as he fell to the ground barely hanging on to life as a river of blood streamed from beneath him. She stood there trembling as she let her mind review what she'd just done.

Sazh took the gun from her and said. "Come on, Vanille. I'll take the gun, let's just get out of here." He searched the soldier's pockets and found a ring of keys.

They made their way out of their prison cell and into a corridor lined with doors that led to dark rooms just like the one they came from. Sazh ran to the door across from their prison cell and began working the keys he had stolen. On the fifth try he successfully heard the lock click and pushed the door open. Sitting on top of a pile of wooden crates was a pair of guns and a distinct looking fishing rod. Their weapons!

"I thought I overheard them say our weapons were over here when they delivered our meal yesterday" he explained as he tossed Vanille her rod. "You sure you want to use this, you can have the PSICOM gun."

She shook her head. "No…that's okay. I don't want to kill anyone like that ever again."

"Suit yourself. We gotta move. Whether its Lightning and the others or not, we can at least use this as a distraction to get out of here."

"_Code Purple! I repeat, Code Purple! Fugitive l'Cie have been spotted on the Palamecia. Furthermore the l'Cie imprisoned on the ship have escaped their cell. All units stand ready to fire."_ A voice called over a series of loudspeakers that blended into the celling overhead.

Sazh sighed. "Sounds like we aren't the only ones going to be making a ruckus, but code purple means it will be even trickier to get out of here. Come on, let's go get rescued."

"No" Vanille whispered. "For once in my life I will not sit around and be a damsel in distress. I'm going to stand up and fight; I'm going to rescue them."

Sazh grinned. "Now you're talking." He ran down the narrow corridor with Vanille following behind not knowing what would be around each corner but they kept moving anyway holding on to the hope that they could survive this

""_Code Purple! I repeat, Code Purple! Fugitive l'Cie have been spotted on the Palamecia. Furthermore the l'Cie imprisoned on the ship have escaped their cell. All units stand ready to fire."_

Lightning halted in a corridor and motioned for the others to follow suit. They had successfully taken the PSICOM ship to the Palamecia and using the newly formatted ID code they were able to dock with ease. Unfortunately shortly after they boarded they were forced to fight soldiers setting off an alarm. They were forced to travel through the ship in its more lightly guarded areas like the cargo hold area at the ships lowest part.

"What do all the colors stand for?" Hope whispered.

Fang smirked. "It means we're doing our job correctly. We're making PSICOM nervous."

Lightning nodded. "Code green stands for a minor threat. We set that off by our arrival. Code purple however, means there was a breakout from within."

Hope's eyes lit up. "Vanille and Sazh?"

Lightning smiled. "I hope so." She peeked around the corner to check and see if the coast was clear. When it was she motioned for everyone to follow her. Something was bothering Lightning. This had been too easy. They were able to get into the Palamecia with little problems and once they had been discovered, the hordes PISCOM troops they had been expecting never arrived to fight them off. On the other hand, from the sound of it, Sazh and Vanille had been able to escape their prison. For being on such high security protocol, even the chance of escape was nearly impossible. Something was definitely wrong.

She stopped and faced her companions and said "Listen, be on your guard. I think something is seriously wrong."

Snow nodded. "I agree. This is all too easy. It's like the Sanctum is letting us walk in and take what we want with no isues."

"But how can that-" Hope started, but was cut off as the ship rocked violently. The lights flickered and went dim. Once the rocking ceased the ship was still. Too still.

"Power is down." Lightning announced.

"Won't the ship crash?" Snow questioned.

Lightning shook her head. "No, they have backup generators to keep the ship floating, but they cut the power to everything else to reduce the strain on them."

"What do we do?" Hope whispered.

"We use this as an opportunity to get to Vanille and Sazh." Lightning replied.

"Halt! Enemy l'Cie found." Cried a soldier's voice. A group of six soldiers streamed down the hall in front of them. They proceeded toward the fugitives guns raised ready to shoot. "Don't move."

Lightning pulled out her sword ready to fight off the assault half grateful that they were finally attacking them and acting just as predictably as they should. She gripped the hilt and let her body slide into position ready to strike

As they advanced down the hall there was a loud explosion as a chunk of the wall of the corridor blew to pieces. Half the soldiers were caught in the blast and their bodies were promptly ripped apart. For the soldiers that survived, they turned on their heels and promptly retreated in fear of the l'Cie's incredible power.

Fang stood in the hall, awestruck looking to Lightning for an explanation of what happened.

The explanation came in the form of two figures stepping through the wall coughing out the smoke from their lungs and batting it away from their face. One, a very tall dark skinned middle aged man and the other a petite fair skinned, red pigtailed girl.

"Ack! Sazh I told you using that dynamite we found was going to cause too much of a ruckus. The soldiers will be here soon." Vanille cried as she stepped through the wall. She waved the smoke from her tearing eyes and saw four very familiar people, one of which was the very person she had been searching for. "Fang!"

"Vanille!" Fang cried as she ran to her best friend and wrapped her arms around her. "I'm so proud of you." She immediately moved down to her leg and pulled up her skirt to look at her friend's brand. The others shifted uncomfortably at Fang's action. "Relax " she chuckled. "I'm just checking to see how much time Vanille has left….what a relief. You've still got time."

"Um Fang" Vanille began, her voice shaking. "There's something I need to tell you."

"Never mind about that" Fang interjected. "We'll have plenty of time once we get off this bloody ship."

"But-"

Fang ignored her. "What's the plan?"

Snow grinned and clenched his fists. "We topple the Sanctum now?"

Sazh's jaw dropped. "Were you out digging in that crystal too long? Look I don't know what happened to you since we split up, but fighting the Sanctum is nuts. We'll never survive."

"We need to give Cocoon back to the people, not let the fal'Cie control it just because they have a bone to pick with the Pulse fal'Cie." Snow retorted. "It took us so long to realize that Pulse…"he caught Vanille and Fang's glares. "er…I mean…Gran Pulse isn't the real enemy here. It's not the Sanctum either…it's the fal'Cie. Just because the fal'Cie from Cocoon and the fal'Cie from Gran Pulse hate each other they think they can drag us humans into it. We need to put a stop to this."

"Well…if you put it that way…" Vanille grinned. "I think we should Purge a Primarch."

"I like the way you think kiddo." Snow grinned.


	14. Chapter 13: A Focus Revealed

Chapter 13

A Focus Revealed

For a ship carrying quite a few important personnel, the security was weak. Lightning would have bet her life that every member of the PSICOM division would be on board however the resistance they had met on the way to the bridge of the Palamecia was light. Somewhere along their run of the ship, a code white was announced and Lightning told her companions she had no idea what that meant as she had never even heard of it. Perhaps it had something to do with the reason why no one was chasing after them.

As it turned out Lightning's thoughts were correct once again. As they burst through the door to the bridge of the massive ship they were met by only two people and not hoards of troops ready to shoot them down. The two people they came face to face with were Jhil Nabaat a commander of the PSICOM division and Primarch Galneth Dysley. Both of them wore smug grins.

Sazh let his hands wander to the guns sitting in the holsters around his legs. The woman who had tempted him to kill his own comrade, a girl he got to know so well he considered her like a daughter. After being treated like garbage and tossed into their prison cell, he got to thinking. If he had to take revenge out for what happened to his son, it would be this vile woman standing before him.

"I see you've finally made it." She said in a bored voice. "I figured after putting the ship under a code white and asking all unnecessary personnel to evacuate you'd at least pick up the speed to get here. See Primarch, I told you that by baiting the two we found in Nautilus, we'd draw out the others." She pulled out a thin rod from the inside of her jacket. It hummed with the power of electricity coursing through it. "Now Primarch, escape, I will finish this scum and bring peace back to Cocoon."

Dysley grinned "Why don't you leave Jhil. Or rather, why don't you take your leave." His voice was silky smooth and confident. "Humans have no place here."

Jhil gasped and turned to face her boss only to be hit directly in the chest by a sharp burst of lightning that erupted from the staff the Primarch was holding. She fell, lifeless to the ground before the group of l'Cie. Sazh could hardly piece together what had just happened. Sure he was happy that, that repulsive woman was dead, but at the same time, why would her own boss kill her just like that, with no reason as to why.

Dysley chuckled and sent raised his staff again. This time six dark colored orbs floated before him. In the flick of a wrist he sent the dark energy balls toward the fugitive l'Cie before him. Instinctively they dodged but they were left in confusion as to what just happened. The Primarch was clearly using magic; Magic very close to their l'Cie magic. If that was the case, then the Dysley was-

Snow charged at the old man, fist clenched. Before he could even hit the man he felt himself hit an invisible wall, smooth as glass. Upon contact he was sent flying backward by an unseen force. When he caught his breath after being hurtled across the bridge he screamed "You monster! People aren't yours to use."

Dysley chuckled once more. "What else does one use with tools? Haven't you fools figured it out yet? Cocoon is nothing more than a mere factory built by the fal'Cie, a factory for the mass production of human lives."

"Not any more it's not. We're giving Cocoon back to the people." Snow snapped.

"You really think so? You saw the fools, they will do nothing more than get themselves killed without fal'Cie aid. See how the tremble at the handful of a few pitiful l'Cie."

Lightning pulled out her sword and grasped it tightly with both hands. "If only they knew it was a l'Cie that was filling their fears all along."

Dysley tossed back his head and laughed. "l'Cie? You mean me? Oh child, perish the thought. I am much more than that." A blinding light surrounded the elderly man's form. His voice called to them "I am fal'Cie."

Vanille and Hope gasped in unison as Sazh, Fang and Lighting raised their weapons ready to fight off the fal'Cie that was before them. When the light cleared Dyslye's true form was revealed to them. It was a huge fal'Cie, with the body of a large dog ready to pounce upon them. It was made of what looked like the same living metal that the fal'Cie in the Vestige was. This fal'Cie however had five heads; One large head in the center with a row of sharp teeth and two that hung upside down on each shoulder. It's massive paw like hands came down before them with razor sharp claws threatening to slash them to bits.

"I am Barthandelus" he roared. "I am the governing voice of the Sanctum and the Lord-Sovereign of the fal'Cie of Cocoon. You should respect me. Your kind feared the darkness, so we gave you light. You begged us for a way to rid Cocoon of Pulse and did the Purge not come about?"

Lightning let out what could be defined as a growl. "So you decide what all the fal'Cie here do?" Without another word she called out in her mind for Odin. In a bright flash of magenta light from her brand Odin materialized before her. Snow and Sazh followed in suit bringing out the Shiva Sisters and Brynhindr . Vanille, Fang and Hope who had yet to have the ability to summon an Eidolon stepped back and let those who did have a shot at fighting the massive fal'Cie that stood before them.

Snow, Sazh and Lightning commanded their Eidolon's to attack Barthandelus. Because they did so with no question they had to assume that attacking the fal'Cie was definitely a part of their focus. The three Eidolon's struck Barthandelus at the same moment and a blinding white light engulfed him yet again. When the light cleared Barthandelus stood before them in his human form of the Primarch unscratched. He laughed at them while they stood before him wonder how he could survive an attack from three Eidolons.

With the flick of his staff the Eidolon's standing before him vanished and no matter how hard Lightning had tried she couldn't call Odin back to her. "You pathetic fools. I am lord-sovereign of all of Cocoon. You cannot expect to kill me like that. While Eidolons will help you over obstacles that humans may inflict upon you, they do not stand up to fal'Cie."

"How do you know this?" Vanille cried.

He looked at her and chuckled. "Stupid girl, surely you of all the l'Cie here should know how to destroy my kind."

Vanille looked away.

Fang stepped in front of her friend and yelled. "We were l'Cie once, but we lost our memories. So no, we don't know how to destroy your kind."

"Is that so," he questioned with an amused look on his face. "Then shall I remind you of the vision you were all given…Ragnarok."

Pain shot through Fang's arm pulsing from her brand. "What are you talking about. What's Ragnarok." She asked through clenched teeth. The pain in her brand was spreading throughout her body.

"You pitiful l'Cie. You've forgotten your focus haven't you?" Barthandelus asked. "Very well, if I must spell it out for you. Ragnarok is the beast that one of you must become in order to lay waste to Cocoon. One of you must become that monstrosity and defeat Orphan, the fal'Cie that created Cocoon and powers all of it's fal'Cie and you will release a power such that this world will have never seen."

"What are you saying?" Fang asked. "You're saying we must become this Ragnarok thing and kill millions of people?"

"Isn't that what the legend states?" Hope questioned. "Except Cocoon fought back and stopped Ragnarok from killing everyone."

"You stupid boy, Cocoon did not stop Ragnarok those hundreds of years ago, a pitiful l'Cie failed to fulfill their focus and stopped themselves from destroying Orphen. If one of you becomes Ragnarok and destroys Orphen correctly, then your focus will be fulfilled."

"That's impossible!" Snow hollered as he pulled out the crystal tear Serah had left him. "Serah asked us to save Cocoon before she turned to crystal. She was trying to tell us how to complete our focus and in doing so, she completed her own."

Barthandelus's laugh echoed off the walls of the bridge. "Her focus wasn't to tell you to save Cocoon you fool. You're dear fiancé wept crystal tears as you all came together because you all came together. That was her focus. She did nothing more than assemble the tools for Cocoon's destruction"

Snow clenched his fists ready to strike the old man again as the ship began to rock, throwing him off balance and onto the ground. "Well, I'd suggest you run l'Cie and see how stark reality really is." With a flick of his staff the glass walls of the bridge shattered and a miniature PSICOM ship appeared before them. With another laugh he levitated himself off the ground and in a burst of blue flame vanished in a shower of sparks.

"What do we do?" Vanille cried as she tried to keep herself from falling. "The ship feels like its collapsing."

"It is!" Lightning yelled. "The backup generators have been shut off. The ship is going down. If we don't move now we'll go down with it."

Sazh forced the door of the miniature PSICOM ship open and ran to the controls. "We gotta get going" he called to his companions. Fang, Vanille and Hope board the ship without a question. Snow however stood on the bridge of the Palamecia shaking in anger.

Lightning grabbed shoulders and shook him violently. "We need to go." When he didn't respond she slapped him as hard as she could. "Snow! Don't die here, Serah will want to see you when she wakes up." She had to practically drag him onto the ship and strap him in by force but he didn't fight back. When everyone was ready to go she yelled to Sazh "Go!"

The ship took off with a jolt and plummeted through the air. Sazh frantically pushed the buttons on the control panel to gain control of the ship to no avail. "It's jammed! I can't control it."

"It was a trap!" Snow yelled in anger. "We never should have trusted that fal'Cie scum."

"it's like the ship is flying itself." Sazh announced.

A voice echoed over the speakers in the ship. "Not so fast l'Cie" Commander Yaag Rosch said. "I won't let you get away with injuring me killing my partner and threatening the Primarch." A large ship came into view directly in front of them and promptly fired at them. The ship moved out of the way with ease by itself. Rosch fired even more at the enemy ship only to see it glide out of the way.

With another jolt it flew out of the way an plummeted downward while illuminating a soft green shield around them.

"The hell kind of ship is this?" Sazh yelled as he frantically tried to gain control.

"Look!" Hope yelled "Its Eden" he pointed out the window to see the floating city of Eden rushing towards them.

"You've gotta be kidding me" Sazh screamed in frustration. "This thing's delivering us right to the Sanctum?"The ship cruised through the barrier around the city with ease while Rosch's ship smashed into it and fell out of view leaving the commander wondering why the city accepted tainted l'Cie but rejected a commander that protected it.

The miniature PSICOM ship soared over the city of Eden; over thousands of unsuspecting people going about their daily lives waiting for the Palamecia to arrive carrying the l'Cie for their execution. Word would be arriving soon, probably tainted by Sanctum lies that the terrible l'Cie brought ruin to the beautiful ship and they escaped yet again.

They watched the world below them, filled with the most advanced technology created and wondered just how they were going to be able to escape this time. Vanille was awestruck by the view of the city and found herself hating her focus again. She turned around and let out a scream "Sazh look out!"

He faced forward to see they were headed directly for a skyscraper. He smashed as many buttons as he could but failed to gain control of the ship. They were going to crash, and if they by some miracle survived that, it wouldn't be long before they would be captured and executed. At the last moment they all closed their eyes and waited for the impact.


End file.
